Marie D Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!
by Phalanx
Summary: A girl from the real world falls into the One Piece world and finds herself on the 'Thousand Sunny'. But why is the ship deserted? What happened to the crew? And how do Trafalgar Law, the Heart Pirates, and the so-called Pirate Queen factor in all of this? A contemplative, comprehensive take on OCs, Mary Sues and their parodies, all deconstructed with a macabre twist. -REVISED-
1. Girl falls into OP

**Marie D. Suesse And The ****Mystery **New Pirate Age!

A Deconstruction Parody of:

**Chapter 1: Girl falls into OP**

* * *

Dinner-time at the Suesse household had always been a depressing affair. It consisted of two adults and one teen-aged girl trying very hard to pretend they wanted to be there sharing time with each other. If any one of them was feeling particularly brave, there might be some attempt at some light conversation. But usually, they ate in awkward silence.

The problem was, you never knew when the slightest misstep could erupt into an angry fight.

Now before I go any further, I should mention that if you are looking to read one of those stories where a girl from the one world falls into another world and maybe falls in love with one of the characters there, then you are probably looking at the wrong story. While some of that does happen in this story (along with other significantly nastier happenings), it all doesn't happen quite how you'd think it would. You see, this story isn't one of those self-indulgent wish-fulfillment fantasies. Nor is it a story telling you how worthless wish-fulfillment fantasies are, and how guilty you should feel for indulging in them.

This is more of a story _about_ wish-fulfillment itself.

But I am getting ahead of myself here, so let's go back to the situation in the Suesse household, and talk about our protagonist of this tale.

The girl's name was Marie D. Suesse, but she preferred to call herself 'Mar". A normal narrator would have started this story by launching into a detailed description of her eyes and hair and clothes I suppose... something along the lines of "_She had long black hair in a hime cut that reached to her waist. Her eyes were the colour of brown topaz, and her skin was pale, like the bark of a birch tree."_ They might also follow up with a description of what kind of clothes she liked to wear, but I really can't be bothered with telling you all about her clothes at this stage because it's not important. Hell, if it was _that_ important to let you know exactly what she looked like, I'd rather provide a picture, thank you very much.

_Anyway_, at the present her looks are of little concern, except for the fact that she could have been quite attractive, but suffered from low-self esteem and thus neglected her looks, which in turn made her look dowdier than she was. And because she knew she looked dowdy and no one in their shallow material society paid her any attention, her self-esteem plummeted even further and she paid even less attention to her looks. It was one of those cyclic cause-and-effect things.

Now Mar, as she insisted on calling herself, was one of those people who lived her own life believing that she didn't belong in it. You know how it usually goes, the feeling no one truly understood and that everyone seemed to be all totally incapable of seeing the world as she saw it, her true inner beauty and so on so forth. Needless to say, she was a rather unhappy girl, and while she didn't help herself in that regard by doing nothing about it, it was also in no small part due to her being the only child from a fractured family that was barely one, thanks to one parent who didn't seem to be around enough to care, and another who never seemed satisfied with her no matter what she did.

It had to be said though, Mar hadn't really done much with her life yet. She was sixteen after all, and her overall activities were rather unremarkable. School, lunch, home, dinner, room. Read manga and watch videos in room. Sleep. Then school again. And on and on.

Which brings us to where we left off— the uncomfortable dinner phase where everyone sat around looking at food and not talking.

After dinner, Mar made her excuses and scooted off as fast as she could, and lay in bed, thinking of the latest installment of her favourite manga, a pirate story named One Piece. Reading about the zany adventures of Straw-Hat Luffy and his crew gave her a temporary respite from the dreariness of her reality, which to her, was the best one could hope for in life, really.

It was then, while she was lying there, when she heard the raised voices of her parents over the other normal sounds of the house. They were fighting again.

Naturally, this made Mar even more miserable than normal.

Now I didn't tell you this to make you feel sorry for her. This titbit of information is important only because your knowing this will help make what she did next make a bit more sense:

"To be free," Mar whispered, crying herself to sleep. "To live as a pirate, free on the ocean, with only adventure to look forward to."

What she didn't know then, was that she would get her wish.

* * *

When Mar awoke, there was the sound of screaming. She paid it little mind. Screaming, especially angry screaming, occurred far too often in the household of Suesse.

But something was wrong, and the house shouldn't have been shaking like that. Was it an earthquake?

It wasn't.

When she finally got up and gazed out the window, her jaw dropped. Her house was in the middle of the ocean. And it was floating. Well, if you wanted to be accurate, it was slowly sinking.

To top it off, in the waters right outside there was a very big sea-creature, the neck and head of which was almost the height of the two-story house. The great beast was looking at the Suesse House very curiously.

Mar's jaw dropped in awe. She recognized the creature. It was a sea-king.

But her awe was quickly overridden, because of the screaming.

"_Mom?"_

This is the part where this story no longer resembles your typical girl-falls-into-One-Piece story you see, because the last thing you want along for those kind of trips are your two parents.

* * *

**End of Chapter 1**

* * *

_**A/N:** This is a revised version of the original opening story, updated 2013. Of course I was going to put the feedback you guys gave me to good use ;) -|P_


	2. Loses Her Parents

**Marie D. Suesse And The ****Mystery **New Pirate Age!

A Deconstruction, served with a side of Lemony Narrator:

**Chapter 2: Loses Her Parents**

* * *

In stories where girls fall from the real world into fictional worlds, the most common scenario is for them to fall into a dangerous scenario and be rescued by someone from the fictional world, thus providing a perfect excuse to tag along with the locals. The fact that 90% of these rescues end up being romances should tell you something about the chances of this not happening in this instance.

Which is to say, it did happen actually. Just not quite that way to our main protagonist Mar.

Now when we last left Mar, she was staring out of her window at a sea king which was probably wondering what delicious morsel was about to come crawling out of the sinking house. Her mother, not being exposed to the wonderful imagination of some japanese _manga-ka_, was screaming in a panic, while her father was yelling something about Loch Ness monsters.

Which is a stupid thing to do, because said Loch Ness monster-like thing will know you are alive, fleshy and probably quite edible.

Fortunately, sea-kings are deliciously edible too. A group of hungry pirates promptly showed up and killed the creature in about five seconds flat.

"Pirates!" exclaimed her father, who had been prepping his baseball bat. "How did they get here all the way from Somalia?"

(According to the author, Mar's father was being rather presumptuous. In actuality, there are other areas afflicted with modern piracy too, the other area most famous after the Coast of Somalia being the Straits of Malacca.)

Anyway, unfortunately for Mar, these pirates were NOT good pirates. That is, the fictional type of pirates that dress up and go around having adventures and not do any of the real piratey things like raze, pillage and capture slaves. This lot DID do those piratey duties, and they even know to do them the correct order.

Now Mar had always told herself that she was brave and special. She'd trained in the martials arts and was a blue belt in karate. She'd fight to show that even as a girl, she was strong enough a fighter to be taken seriously.

But after hearing that hyena-like laugh and witnessing her father dropping like a rock after being taken out by a man who seemed vaguely familiar, she ended up hiding under the bed, and praying they wouldn't find her. She also had the privilege of listening in terror as the pirates dragged her parents off.

They didn't find her, not because her hiding place was really any good, but the house had sunk so much into the ocean by that time that they deemed it a hazard to stay in there, and sailed off, leaving her alone.

* * *

For some reason, people like writing about abused heroines with tragic childhoods. Their favourite trauma (after the rather tasteless abuse and rape backstory) is probably being orphaned in some horrific incident. It is often used to inspire sympathy. It should be noted that few of them ever do it justice. Writers using it as a sympathy card for them to 'like' a character is akin to causing the death of someone's parents and taking up a collection on behalf of that someone as they've been orphaned.

Anyway, back to our heroine. Now Mar believed that she never cared for her parents. She despised them for constantly arguing and yet pretending everything was all right in her presence. She had been counting the days until she could turn eighteen and leave home.

And yet now, when she was alone, clinging on to the flotsam that had survived her sunken house, she would have given almost anything to have them back. Her beautiful but admittedly naggy mother, who always sighed in disappointment at her for not living up to her potential. Her workaholic father who never spent time home if he could help it. As parents, they were horrible at their job, but they were _there_.

Four hours later, hunger and exposure got upgraded into the most prevalent thought in her mind, right behind the eerie thought of what exactly was down there in the black-blue depths. Sharks? Sea-Kings? Would any of them notice her and come eat her, wrinkly fingers and all?

It was at this point that something rather odd happened.

Something small and yellowish was floating in the distance. The way the current carried it, it seemed to be floating towards her. When it came closer she recognised it, and Mar's jaw dropped. Again.

It was THE Straw Hat.

If you are reading this and do not know which straw hat I mean, then you would probably be a hopeless case sitting in the wrong place reading the wrong story from the wrong fandom and heaven knows how you even got as far as the second chapter. But of course you know which straw hat I mean. The question you should be asking yourself, and I have no doubt you _are_ asking yourself, is what is that hat doing floating in the middle of the ocean with no owner in sight?

You might be even more surprised to hear that this was not the only thing Mar was wondering (of course she recognised it for what it was). But as it came closer and she could see what was in it, her attention was shifting more and more to the object sitting nestled in the floating, upturned hat.

It was a fruit. And when I say 'fruit' of course all you savvy readers will immediately know that I wouldn't even bother mentioning this detail if it was just your average Granny Smith apple or Cavendish banana being floated about in that hat turned impromptu-fruit-basket. Of course it's a devil fruit. In fact, this was a devil fruit that looked like a chilli pepper, but with swirly lines all over.

Now most people, on being lucky enough to find a devil fruit, will probably hope against all hope that fruit is a Logia fruit. I'm not sure what it is with the Logia fixation. Maybe it's a kind of snobbery and belief that the more rare a fruit, the better it is. Personally, I find it's more about the user's skill, and that Logias are overrated while Paramecias are undervalue despite being much more versatile, but hey, just because I'm the narrator doesn't mean I'm not entitled to some bias, here.

Whatever the case is, everyone who finds a fruit will probably hope that they end up with an absurdly overpowered logia fruit, hopefully something suspiciously similar to something a famous person already has, say ice or the power to turn into diamonds or sakura blossoms and so on and so forth.

Anyway, back to the story... now on recognising the fruit, Mar did what most people in her situation would have done: she grabbed the famous hat, jammed it on her head, and ate the fruit.

She did not quite get a Logia devil fruit, however. Almost, but not quite. She was one letter off.

She soon realized, as she swallowed the horrible tasting flesh that burned on contact with her skin, that she had eaten the Logic-Logic fruit. (In case you were wondering, it's a Paramecia. Yes I know some people consider logic an element, and some people think logic is elementary, but the author says it's a Paramecia, so it's a Paramecia, ok?)

Right after she ate the fruit, she was overcome with a searing pain that quickly ebbed away into a dull headache. Fortunately, Mar had had the foresight to tie herself to the conveniently floating flotsam. She had also made sure she was less than half-submerged before she ate the devil-fruit and became powerless in the water.

There are advantages to reading a lot of manga when you get dropped into the world of one, you see.

By good fortune, that also meant her new-found devil-fruit powers could work. And lo and behold, more strange things started happening as she came to terms with the change the accursed fruit had done to her.

One: The water below her began bubbling.

Two: The air-tight plastic chest that she had been using as a floatation device was rising out of the water, because the deck of a ship was appearing beneath her.

Three: She was lifted out of the water and found herself on the bridge of a perfectly functional ship that had inexplicably risen out of the depths of the ocean.

I say 'inexplicably', but actually, it is quite explainable, and drawing upon Mar's Logic-Logic fruit powers, let me proceed to outline how this apparent _deus ex machina_ came about.

Mar's house, on sinking to the bottom of the ocean, had disturbed a coated ship that had been lying hidden there. Why exactly it should be coated and anchored to the bottom of the ocean at that particular point is a mystery I won't go into now, but the matter of fact is the sinking house had severed the line of the anchor. Without the additional weight of the anchor, something called buoyancy took over and whoops, up goes the ship!

And that was how Mar found herself a ship.

But it wasn't just any ship. As she got to her feet, she realized the deck was made out of dirt that had turned into mud, and was covered with the mushy remains of what might have been grass.

There was a very familiar-looking lion figurehead at the prow. It was covered in leftover silt, but Mar could see that it had been painted with bright colours, much like the rest of the ship. Most tellingly of all was the symbol on the ship's main sail and flag. As Mar recognised it, the traumatised and displaced girl had to pinch herself it make sure that she wasn't dreaming.

She wasn't. She blinked hard and rubbed her eyes before looking again anyway.

It was all too surreal. Despite the faded colours of the dye, there was no doubt that both sail and standard bore the symbol of the man who would be the Pirate King.

"It's the _Thousand Sunny_!" Mar said aloud in amazement. "I'm on the _Thousand Sunny_!"

* * *

**End of Chapter 2**


	3. Finds Herself On The Sunny

**Marie D. Suesse And The ****Mystery **New Pirate Age!

A Deconstruction, with a bit of fridge horror for flavouring:

**Chapter 3: Finds Herself On The Sunny**

* * *

In most stories where a girl from the real world falls into the world of One Piece, it's incredible how they always somehow end up on a pirate ship with friendly crew who will take them in for no apparent reason.

Statistically speaking, this kind of frequent occurence makes no sense. With the amount of ocean coverage in that world, the odds should be pretty high that they'd drop into the open sea with no land in sight instead. Most would then drown or get eaten by sea-kings before anyone ever found them. Even if they were lucky enough to be found, the chances them being found by common, no-standard pirates would be around the same as being picked up by a merchant vessel or a marine patrol. Friendly, benign pirates on the other hand, are very very rare.

Logically speaking, the whole coincidental rescue thing also makes no sense. Pirates are not heroes. Well they're not heroes _on purpose_, and they don't run around saving people as their primary agenda. Their agenda tends to be more about freedom, adventure and opportunites, and if a pirate crew does pick someone up, said castaway had better have something that would make the picking-up worth it.

So yeah, ending up on a famous pirate ship like the Straw-Hats'_ Thousand Sunny_, Whitebeard's _Moby Dick_ or even Trafalgar Law's exceedingly extaordinary submarine and then being welcomed into the crew? You'd think the whole chance thing was rigged.

But Mar's case, she was only 50% fortunate, because while she did end up on the deck of the _Thousand Sunny_, she very quickly realized that a) While this was definitely the ship of legend, there were no people on board. b) In fact, given the state of the ship and how long it had been hidden down there, it did not seem likely that there had been anyone alive on board for a long time.

It took her a while before she mustered the courage to explore the ship, the layout of which she knew from diagrams she'd seen before. The ship's coating was probably the reason why it was in relatively good condition despite the period it had spent underwater, but as she walked through room after room and found no one there but things laid out as though the owners had set them out with the intention of returning for them shortly, she couldn't help but feel a little creeped out.

What was truly disconcerting however, that the fact that c) There were no _people_ on board didn't mean no one else was on board.

The first indication she had of this was the Voice.

It was singing to itself.

At first she had thought it might have been Brook. He wasn't her favourite Straw-Hat character but at the moment, anyone would have been welcome for a change. So when she rushed to the room from where the voice had come from and flung open the door, she was startled to find the room was empty.

And the voice had disappeared.

* * *

The second time Mar heard the Voice was when she was looking through the girls' room. It was a nice room, neat and clean, unlike the boys', which was a typical example of what happens when a bunch of non-domestic men share a single room.

It was when she had found the stash of treasure that was undoubtedly Nami's when she heard the Voice again. To be specific, it scared the stuffing out of her by whispering nastily in her ear:

_"Don't touch that! She'll be aaaangggrrry... It's heerssss..."_

But when she turned around, no one was there.

Perhaps her eyes were playing tricks on her, for as she looked around for any sign of the speaker, she almost thought she saw something that looked like a small child scuttle away in the reflection of the mirror.

* * *

When you're on board a ghost ship and you're alone, and you're sure that there's some spirit haunting it, the last place you'd want to be is below decks. Given that all in the same day, Mar had just been 1) Transported into an imaginary world 2) Nearly eaten by a sea-king 3) Lost her parents to a pirate crew, and 4) Was now stuck on an apparent ghost-ship (that she thought would be homey but was turning out to be an experience more befitting a B-Grade horror flick), she did what was probably the most logical thing she could do: she stayed on the deck and the bridge most of the time, only venturing below when she had to.

Let it be said that she did not eat the Logic-Logic fruit for nothing.

Speaking of the fruit, it had proven somewhat disappointing to her expectations of it. True, her judgement had become excruciatingly logical due to the fact every time she thought or witnessed something illogical, she would either get a headache or a stomachache. Very handy for scientific analysis, but you really didn't need a devil-fruit for that, did you?

It had come in handy when she was scrounging for some food, however. She'd surprised herself actually. It took her only six tries to crack the combination to Sanji's fridge.

Firstly, she figured that the most obvious way one made passwords would be to select a date, such as a birthday. In fact, that was what she did on her first try. The curious coincidence that she actually knew Sanji's birthday by heart should be a little disturbing, but let's overlook that point at the moment, shall we?

But his birthday in YYMM and MMYY formats did not work. Since she had no idea what year it was she decided this was not likely a good way to guess, and began thinking of the next logical alternative. The most natural thing after a birthday, she supposed, would be converting a passphrase to a number combination, substituting the roman alphabet with numbers. The simplest method to do that would be numbering each letter of the alphabet in order:

0=A 1=B 2=C 3=D... Z=25

So on so forth.

Next would be a pass-phrase easy to remember. So what would be the most likely pass-phrase someone like Sanji would use?

Her first try was: 12-4-11-11-14-17-8-13...

At this point she realized it was too ridiculously long for an efficient combination and broke it off. For a safe... maybe, but for a fridge, something that you had to open multiple times a day? No, it was too freaking long. So she opted for the next more obvious pass-phrase:

Which was: 13-0-12-8

She jiggled the fridge handle. Nope, did not work.

Perhaps the next most likely phrase: 17-14-1-8-13

That didn't work either. Mar frowned. That Sanji was a little more complex than she had given him credit for. It took a moment's reflection, then she smiled. Of course...

0-11-11-1-11-20-4

The fridge door swung open.

And then she screamed.

Mar had screamed, because for a moment, there had been a little figure sitting in there, waiting for her to open the door, flashing its eerie grin at her from an otherwise featureless face. The next moment, it had leapt at her, and was gone, leaving her screaming at rotten moldy milk and the putrid contents of the fridge.

Once she calmed down from the scare, she could feel a headache coming back on. Of course. You kept perishables in the fridge. Given the amount of time the _Sunny_ had spent at the bottom of the ocean (how long had it been, anyway?) the fridge would have likely broken down or lost power. And its contents... ew. She should have figured that one out earlier.

Her stomach growled.

_Food..._ she thought to herself, _I need food_.

Perhaps Sanji had canned rations lying around in the cupboards. She should take a look... if creepy little figures did not come jumping out of those.

_Although_, she thought in irritation, _You'd think that in a world where stuff didn't need to make sense, the stupid fridge would at least try and defy logic and keep working..._

Then she jumped, because just as she thought that, there was a rattling sound, the type you hear when you've just had a black out and power's just come back on and the fridge has just started up again. Yeah, THAT noise. This was followed by her clutching her stomach as the cramp kicked in again.

She really needed to eat something.

The ship suddenly pitched, and Mar was thrown off kilter. On reflex, she grabbed the handle of the fridge, which swung open, but steadied her nevertheless. On regaining her balance, she hurriedly closed it, not wanting to see the putrid contents again or heaven forbid, that grinning face, but even that memory did not stop her from noticing something had changed.

A split second after closing the fridge door she opened it again, and stared in amazement at its interior.

The food that had been rotten and half-decomposing just minutes ago, was now fresh and edible-looking. Joints of meat, ham, milk, eggs, and vegetables, all looking as though they had just been stocked that morning.

She stared at the food for a full minute. Then she carefully closed the door, taking care to touch it as little as possible.

For dinner she had a can of tuna she had found in a drawer.

* * *

**End of Chapter 3**

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**I know what you are wondering: so why am I, of all people, writing a Mary Sue/OCs Wanted! story? **

**Well this isn't a serious endeavor, I don't plan on this being very long, but I do see it as another self-challenge. I wanted to test if it was possible to cram in as many awful One Piece fanfic cliches as I could think of and yet write a readable short story. I also wanted to explore if it is even possible to write a One Piece fanfic that consists of almost no canon characters yet be interesting.**

**Yes I'm crazy. And Yes, I may have possibly written the first part of this while on flu meds. I'm quite aware it's rather bizarre and a far departure from my usual gen AUs.**

_Edit: 2013 - Some of the original chapters have been rewritten. So if you find references in the reviews that do not match with the chapter, the reviewers were probably right, and I changed some portions to accommodate their points.**  
**_

_Dec 2010: A special shout out needs to go to Paosheep, who spotted an error in my fridge cipher. Whoops! Fixed, and here's your 'Devastatingly Detailed Award'! :)_


	4. Instant Acceptance, Just Add Water!

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, where product may not work as advertised:

**Chapter 4: Instant Acceptance, Just Add Water!**

* * *

It is a common misconception that it is an easy thing to join the Straw-Hat Pirates. In fact, if you were to believe the rumours, all you would have to do was show your face on board the _Thousand Sunny_, and the Captain would, with the judgement of an absolute simpleton, immediately ask you to join his crew.

Contrary to popular portrayal however, even a simpleton as devoid of common-sense like Straw-Hat has a selection criteria for potential crewmates. And no, being 'cool, new, good-looking and powerful with a huge bounty" is not one of them. 'Interesting by my warped standards', however, is more likely one of them.

Uncharacteristically of most pirates, "having a good heart" is also another one of those criteria. As I mentioned before, Straw-Hat Luffy has some very strange standards for who makes it into his _pirate_ crew. But hey, he _is_ the captain of his crew, so I suppose he can pretty much have whatever kind of weird standards he likes.

Of course, all this is absolutely irrelevant in our present story, because as you know, Mar currently stood very little chance of joining anyone's crew as she had found herself on the _Thousand Sunny_ when there was no captain or crew to be found on board. And to make matters worse, the ship was deliberately trying to kill her.

This was not Mar being melodramatic. As you will recall, she had eaten the Logic-Logic fruit, which meant that unless she enjoyed having headaches and cramps, she had to think as logically as possible. So this was a logical deduction born of observation and narrow escapes.

Now, having the boom come loose and sweep across the deck, nearly knocking her overboard, could easily be called an accident.

The bookshelf in the girls' room suddenly falling over and nearly crushing her to death barely an hour later could still be called a coincidence.

The bathroom door mysteriously locking itself when she had to go had been significantly more annoying, and it had taken her frantic shouts about whether 'the stupid ship wanted her to foul up its deck and no she wasn't going to clean it if that happened' to get the door to open again.

It didn't stop trying, though. The floorboards suddenly giving way so she nearly fell into the fish tank had been another close call (since she was a devil-fruit user now, she couldn't swim), and pretty much clinched it.

By the time night fell and she was as nervous and twitchy as anyone who has been stalked by some supernatural entity could be expected to be.

And there was the problem of where to sleep. The deck was too open, but after the incident in the girls' room, she wasn't really keen to stay there. The boys' room was out of the question, so eventually she settled for Chopper's office.

She did take care to remove all the sharp objects from the room before she turned in, however.

* * *

It would be a lie to say Mar slept well. The truth? If she wasn't being bothered by dreams of her parents, she kept having dreams that that... _Thing_was sitting in the corner of Chopper's office, or sitting on the doctor's chair, calmly and unblinkingly watching her while she slept.

But every time she woke up in a cold sweat, there was nothing.

As soon as it was morning, she got up warily, and then noticed something odd.

There was a scalpel hidden right under the pillow she had been sleeping on. And then she recognized it. It was one of the ones she had been so sure to remove the night before.

She'd checked the bed before she'd gone to sleep, so it couldn't have been put there other than the time she was sleeping...

Mar shuddered. It was rather obvious, that the ship didn't want her on board.

* * *

There is a saying that one person can't sail a ship on their own. Plus, if you recall, a brigantine sloop like the _Thousand Sunny_ requires a skillful navigator, which Mar was not.

It didn't matter however, because the ship definitely had a mind of its own, and was mysteriously and rather purposefully making its way somewhere.

Sometime over the course of the night, Mar remembered that some ships had spirits in the One Piece world. Yes, they called it a _Klauterba-_something. And they looked like a little child, at least, the one belonging to the _Going Merry _did.

The _Thousand Sunny_'s Klauterba-whatever however, was certainly a bitter, murderous, little freak. It had tried the boom trick on her again this morning. She'd managed to dodge it... only to nearly fall into the fish tank. She was sure that as she clawed at the deck and saved herself, there had been a rather eerie, mocking laugh.

Whatever did she do to it to earn such animosity anyway?

"Look!" she said in desperation to the ship, and not with a little anger. "It's not like I want to be here anyway! I lost everything I have! I don't have a choice, you know?"

The ship's sail only flapped in response and sailed faster.

"And it's not my fault that your crew is missing!" The pent-up fear in her was beginning to explode into rage. "And you should be thanking me, because if it weren't for my parents—" Her voice wobbled a little at this point. "—my parents' house sinking, you'd still be stuck down there all alone!"

Actually that thought had been disturbing Mar for a while, although she tried not to think about it. Except that it was the most logical thing to think about in her situation and so she couldn't avoid that. This whole deserted _Sunny_ thing was unnatural. In fact, the _Sunny_'s Klauterb... spirit thing becoming such a malevolent entity just seemed so entirely out of character with the Straw-Hat crew's whole benign philosophy.

She couldn't help but suspect something horrifically pivotal must have happened to have warped it that way, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know what it was.

* * *

Midday found a little speck of land visible on the horizon.

Lunch had been some dry crackers from the store cupboards. She'd been tempted to take some cheese from the fridge, but the whole rejuvenating food thing was still creeping her out and she really wouldn't put it past the Sunny to have the food turn out to be poisoned, anyway.

As they drew closer to it, any hopes of being able to get off the haunted ship faded, as she realized that island was barely more than a rock breaking the surface of the ocean.

"You'd better not be planning on dumping me there," she told the ship, and got the boom sweeping across the deck in response. Because she was getting used to it, she avoided the attack easily.

"Belligerent freaking ship..." Mar muttered sullenly, giving the mast a little kick.

Perhaps not the wisest of moves, antagonising the ghost ship you're travelling on. In this case, the ship proceeded to stop itself a short distance from the rock and refused to move any further. How it managed to stay in the same spot, given that it had lost its anchor, was a mystery. But the ship being able to sail itself and having a spirit was already illogical, and Mar really didn't want to give herself too much of a headache thinking about it further.

"I'm not getting off here. You'd zoom off the moment I disembark and I'd starve to death on that little rock."

Silence.

"It's pitifully obvious, you know."

But the ship still remained unmoving, as though they had been becalmed.

* * *

Mar sat beneath the dead frames of Nami's mikan trees for a little respite from the afternoon sun. Sure, she could have gone below decks, but that would have put her at the mercy of the _Sunny_ again.

Those poor trees. They hadn't survived their extended stay beneath the ocean... just how long had the _Sunny_ been down there? And why had the _Sunny_ been hidden down there? It hadn't been sunk by enemy fire, because the ship was still in working condition. Add the fact that the ship had been coated; that implied the whole submersion thing had been planned.

But why would the Straw-Hats do the equivalent of scuttling a ship (presumably to hide it) and leave it hidden for what must have been years?

_Maybe because they meant to come back, but something happened and they never did._

There was no headache, which meant it was a very logical thought, as horribly morbid as it was.

There was a way for Mar to confirm this. But it would involve exploring the nether regions of the ship, where the _Sunny_ would probably find some way to drop Franky's machinery on her head or something. Still, anything would be better than just sitting there, so she got up and made her way to the soldier docking bay.

The _Mini-Merry_ II and the Nami's Waver were still there, looking neglected beneath their thick layer of encrusted salt.

But the _Shark Submerge III_ was gone. That meant that at least a few of the Straw-Hats had probably left the ship alive.

As hopeful as that sounded to Mar, it also gave rise to a rather disturbing train of thought. She was pretty sure the _Shark_ wouldn't be able to hold all nine of the crew. In fact, she was sure the number was only two or three, max. Which meant that either a) They had dropped off most of the crew somewhere before submerging the ship and escaping in the submersible, or... b) There had been only so few of them left at the point that they could all fit in the little submarine.

No headaches meant both possibilities were logical.

_But if they had never come back..._

She was interrupted from her dark imaginings when suddenly, she realized there were voices and the sounds of footsteps coming from the above decks.

Someone had come on board.

* * *

**End of Chapter 4**

* * *

**_Author's Note:_**

**_Those of you who follow my other fics, rest assured I'm not slacking off on working on them, it's just that this thing seems to write itself. Oddly enough, it really helps to blow that writer's block into pieces too. Like I keep saying, it's oddly cathartic. Maybe a little creepy._**


	5. Too Much Information

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, whereupon many toes were gleefully trodden:

**Chapter 5: Too Much Information**

* * *

Mar's first thought had been that the Straw-Hats had returned.

It was the most logical thing to think. Perhaps the ship's sticking to that rock of an island had been nothing to do with her after all, and it was just a meeting place for them to meet up after a long period of separation.

One would think that after interacting with nothing but an angry ghost and echoes, Mar would have jumped at the chance to see and talk to real people again. But now that the moment had come she found herself strangely reluctant and a little afraid.

In truth, she'd gotten used to the _Sunny_ and while it was true it incessantly tried to kill her, she was rather well-acquainted with that tendency and could handle it by now. The newcomers however, whether they be Straw-Hats or someone else, were a new and unknown factor.

Through the glass of the door, Mar had caught a glimpse of the boaders and felt a rush of both relief and disappointment. They weren't the missing Straw-Hats.

They were at the very least however, _human_. And there were only two of them.

Now, if you're expecting that as the narrator, this would be the point where I start describing the two boarders in excruciating detail, I'm afraid going to have to disappoint you. I am not going to waste my narration time reciting a long laundry list of physical attributes and clothing description of some random people when you don't even have the faintest idea whether any of this information is important at all.

So yeah, let's just stick with the important details: There were two boarders, and unfortunately for Mar, they looked quite menacing. One of them was armed with a dangerous-looking kukri-knife and the other, a tall girl with dark hair, sported not one, but two swords on her person. After they secured their two-man kayak that to port side of the ship, they started tromping all over the deck of the _Sunny _as if they owned it.

"Hey Slashfang! You were right! It _is_ the _Thousand Sunny!_" said the dark-haired girl to the man as she looked around at the ship.

"Told you so. I saw it from the air and recognized it at once."

"The Pirate King's ship hasn't been seen for years and we find it! What are the chances? It's fate_-des_!" said the brunette.

"Yes, Hana. The Thousand Sunny is the only ship that ever made it to Raftel! If we can claim it, that means we're fated to be the next Pirate King!" replied her companion.

"And Pirate Queen_-des_, who will also be the greatest swordswoman in the world." replied 'Hana', the black-haired woman. (Thankfully, now that the dark-haired girl's name has been established as 'Hana' in the earlier dialogue, we can finally start refering by her name instead of indulging in indiscriminate overusages of banal epithets such as her hair colour or eye-colour.)

"We'll show those no-good abusive parents of ours, won't we? We'll prove them in that they were wrong for laughing at us for our beliefs that we believe in finding One Piece!'

At this point both boarders desisted their extremely self-absorbed conversation because Mar had stepped out from the doorway. Mar was relieved to see another human being, even if in a normal situation, she probably would have found them annoying.

There was a moment of silence as both of them stared at her.

"Holy shit! Hana... could that girl be Straw-Hat Luffy's long-lost daughter?"

Of course it was the straw-hat that she had found and was still wearing that had invoked that supposition. Now keep in mind that Mar did in fact share the same eye colour and hair as the hero of One Piece, and sadly most people tend to associate shared hair and eye colour as the primary charactistic of genealogy. So in this scenario, Mar could have actually gotten away with a "Yes" to that answer quite easily as it would be overly-optimistic to expect non-scientific people to have at least a rudimentary understanding of genetics.

Of course, why she _would_ want to attempt to pass herself off as a relative of Luffy's was another matter, especially since it was highly illogical a 17-year old boy could have a daughter her age that had never been mentioned before and had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. In fact, if they were to associate her as a relative of Luffy's, a _sister_ would have made more sense.

It was at this point when Mar started wondering anew how long the Sunny really been under the ocean.

"Actually, I thought she looked more like the Pirate Queen_-des_. Do you think she's returned from the dead?" Hana was still giving Mar a funny look.

"I don't know, but I'm gonna find out. Who are you? What are you doing here?" the man, 'Slashfang', demanded roughly.

Mar frowned. She had been hoping and hoping for human contact after days (okay, a day) of being stuck on a haunted ship but her first meeting with a non-ghost was not going the way she had hoped.

"I should ask you the same thing," she finally said at last.

"Okay then," Slashfang replied. Mar couldn't help but notice he seemed extremely eager to start talking about himself. "I'm known as Slashfang, but that's just a nickname, and my real name is a secret because the world government would hunt me down otherwise. I'm going to be the next pirate king. I ate the devil-fruit known as the Tori-Tori No Mi, Model: Flying Fox and I have a bounty of 401 million beli!"

"_Watashiwa_ Sakura D. Hana!" said the swordswoman behind him, equally eager to show off her badass credentials. "I have a bounty of 419 million beli, I ate the Mizu-Mizu No Mi and I also have King's Disposition Haki and I'm going to be the greatest swordswoman the world-_des_! With my two blades, _Kurohebi_ (that means Black Snake) and the _Nidai Kitetsu (_that means the Second Demon Slayer), I will show the world the stength of my Nitoryu sword style-_ryu_... _des_!"

At their introductions, Mar suddenly gained a searing headache, as if their very words had triggered some sort of sickness in her. She clutched her forehead in pain, but managed to remember her manners anyway.

"I'm Mar. Uh... Marie D... that stands for Denise... Marie Denise Suesse." Mar, having being endowed with common-sense, realised quickly that her own devil-fruit was best kept a secret for now. "I'm not Luffy's daughter, in case you're thinking that."

"In that case, are you saying this boat isn't yours?"

"Well..."

"In that case, we're claiming it," Hana interrupted. "The _Thousand Sunny_ deserves to make it to Raftel and the be ship of the new Pirate King and Queen of the Third Great Pirate Age."

"Wait... what do you mean Straw-Hat Luffy didn't make it to Raftel? Don't tell me he didn't become the Pirate King?"

Both of them stared at her as if she were stupid.

"_Aho_! Where have you been? Living in a well?" Hana said finally, somewhat condescendingly. "Don't you know that Monkey D. Luffy was caught by the marines and executed in Loguetown like, _twenty years _ago?"

* * *

**End of Chapter 5**

_*** I didn't come up with the phrase "overusages of Banal Epithets", that was courtesy of reviewer Blue-Inked Frost over at AO3, used with permission. Thanks BIF!**_

_*** I swear I do know people in RL who add '-des' in every other sentence.**_


	6. The Queen of The Pirates

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, whereupon much satisfying bloodshed was had

**Chapter 6: The Queen of the Pirates**

* * *

It may sound strange that one should be so affected by the death of someone they had never met in person, but as it turns out, Mar was.

"Monkey D. Luffy was executed?" Her voice was trembling.

"_Hai! _Well yeah, that's history, hun. He nearly got to Raftel, but then he like, got caught and executed. And then his sister, the captain of the Heart Pirates, Monkey D. Madelyn, ended up the Pirate Queen?"

"Except that she too, mysteriously disappeared after that, and their disappearances started the Third New Pirate Age," Slashfang supplemented.

Mar could feel her headache intensify. "What? Wait! That makes no sense. Luffy doesn't have a sister! And how could he have been caught just like that? And his crew would have done something... surely? How did that happen? What happened to them? And what do you mean she was the captain of the Heart Pirates? The captain of that crew is Trafalgar Law!"

Slashfang shrugged. "Who cares? It's yesterday's news. Get with program, girl, it's the new pirate age already, don't you know? If you want a piece of the action, you have to get together a strong crew and try for One Piece."

"Which is why we're getting together one and finding a ship... which looks like we have." The other girl wrinkled her nose at Mar. "We'd ask you to join, but _gomen_, honestly, you're really weak, and don't have a bounty, and we want only the best_-des_..."

"Excuse me?" Mar could barely keep her voice in control, she was so outraged. "Well the Sunny doesn't belong to me, but it doesn't belong to you either! It belongs to itself!"

This turned out to sound as ridiculous as it read. Slashfang and Hana evidently thought so too.

"She's nuts," said Slashfang to Hana after they had exchanged glances.

"And I don't believe a word you are saying," Mar continued angrily, even more annoyed at their reaction her outburst. "Luffy couldn't have just died like that! Not without the whole world knowing how! And a lot of the stuff you're saying is illogical. I mean, first you said that the Sunny made it to Raftel, and then you say Luffy never made it, and then you said he was the Pirate King but how can that be if he never made it to Raftel and found One Piece?"

It was at this point when Slashfang and Hana gave each other uncomfortable looks, as though they had suddenly realized that had been in possession of information A, B and C but never did quite manage to figure out that the sum of A + B = C didn't seem to add up. They didn't say much as she continued her diatribe.

"Moreover, the Tori-Tori No Mi is a bird zoan! How can you even turn into a flying fox?"

"Well I can!" Slashfang replied defensively. "It turns me into a flying fox that can fly like a bird."

"It's illogical!" Mar retorted, feeling her stomach cramp, maybe from the stress and shock. "One's an avian and the other is a mammal!"

"Don't believe me? Watch and learn, little girl. My Tori-Tori No Mi fruit is one of the five devil fruits that allows the user to fly. Appreciate what you are about to witness!"

Having totally stolen those lines from Pell the Falcon, he then proceeded to activate his devil-fruit and transform into his animal form. His red hair started spreading all over his body, his nails started turning black and pointed, and a membrane was forming beneath his armpits...

And then, Slashfang suddenly dropped dead.

* * *

While one might have thought it strange that he had never encountered this problem before, Mar was correct in that zoan devil fruits do not allow dual-classing between the orders of _Mammalia_ and _Aves_. So while a hybrid-fruit animal sounds very nice in theory, when you try and mix together biology without fully understanding how it works... it doesn't. And when it doesn't... well, bad things happen.

Actually, a more in-depth explanation can be found many miles away, when a venerable scientist known as Dr. Vegapunk was busy overseeing the results of his latest devil-fruit research.

"So it didn't work out then?"

"No sir!" said the lab technician. "All of our cross-species spliced devil-fruit suddenly failed biologically. Their insides uh... melted, sir."

"Ah," said the famous doctor. "I do hope that pesky pirate who stole one of our spliced results was foolish enough to eat it then. It would have been such an interesting experiment."

He was right of course, but far far away, on the deck of the _Thousand Sunny_, the aforementioned pesky pirate would have disagreed if he hadn't been well, dead.

* * *

Of course, Slashfang's partner, Sakura D. Hana, was not privy to any of this information or logical thought, so from _her_ point of view, Mar had somehow instantly killed Slashfang.

Her reaction was what you might expect: she unsheathed her swords and threatened to kill Mar amidst a hailstorm of tearful angrish. Actually scratch the 'threatened' part, but she was in fact quite serious about 'killing' part, which was bad news for Mar, because as you will recall, Mar's devil-fruit was not particularly suited for combat and would have been pointless against someone who possessed haki anyway.

What Hana did not possess however, was experience with dealing with a very pissed-off ghost ship. Which was exactly why when the _Sunny's_ boom suddenly came loose and swept across the deck, Mar ducked, and she didn't.

The resulting splash when Hana was knocked overboard filled Mar with relief. This only lasted until the moment she remembered that Hana had eaten the Mizu Mizu No Mi, which for those who can't be bothered with translating the japanese, means the Water-Water fruit. Naturally, Mar's mind began racing in panic, as she realised there was a very real possibility that Hana might actually be a devil-fruit user who was immune to losing her powers on falling into the ocean. After all, surely having a water logia surely meant the user would have the power to turn into water would have presumably have power over water itself.

With dread, she ran to the railing, half-expecting Hana to rise up in a geyser of water or something similar.

But after several agonizing minutes, nothing happened. Cautiously she peeked over, but there was nothing to see but water lapping against the hull, and one last bubble breaking the surface.

So what _does_ happens when a devil-fruit user with the power to turn into, and presumably control water falls into a body of water such as the ocean?

To answer this question, we need to review what we know about devil-fruits:

FACT 1: Devil-fruit users become helpless when submerged in water.

FACT 2: When submerged, the devil-fruit user is unable to actively use their powers.

FACT 3: The Mizu-Mizu No Mi allows the user to control/turn into water.

FACT 4: The user of the Mizu-Mizu No Mi just fell into the ocean and is currently submerged in water.

When you put it this way, it becomes extremely easy to see which rules take precedence over which. There is no caveat that says the ability to turn into water gives one immunity to the devil-fruit's water weakness.

In short, it doesn't matter if it was the God Mode fruit that the user ate, if they fall into the water, it's still Game Over because their powers stop working and they STILL become a hammer and sink.

Which should make things clear on what happened to Hana. The fact that she had heavy swords strapped to her person really didn't help matters much, and so she sank rapidly into the depths and out of this story.

"Uh thanks," said Mar to the _Sunny_ once she had recovered from her panic-attack (Hana had looked quite scary waving those giant swords around). "Does that mean you don't hate me anymore?"

The boom went swinging back across the deck in response. But it was a rather half-hearted swing.

"Well, I'll take what I can get," she muttered, after ducking again. "How about if I dump that freak's corpse over the side for you as a peace offering? I'm not exactly expecting to be best friends forever, but I'd settle for you not trying to kill me."

The boom stayed silent.

"Look I'm going to do it anyway ok? And when I'm doing it I realize it would be a great opportunity for you to knock me overboard too. And since I have a devil-fruit that means I drown. But I trust you. So I'm uh... gonna do it now. Please don't kill me..."

It was the hardest thing in the world for a slight girl like Mar to drag Slashfang's dead-weight corpse over the side. And the scariest moment was turning her back to the _Sunny, _knowing that if it decided to kill her she wouldn't be able to duck in time if she didn't see the boom coming. But as it turned out, nothing untoward happened. Slashfang's corpse obligingly sunk after Hana's, and once again, the deck of the _Sunny_ was clean of their putrefying influence.

"So..." Mar said to the ghost-ship, picking up a mop and preparing to clean the area where Slashfang had fallen. "Can we start over? I'm Mar. I don't want to be Pirate Queen. I don't know how I ended up here. I have a really weird devil-fruit that is making me way too logical for my own good and doesn't seem to do much else. Uh, thanks for saving me from the ocean. And that crazy girl. And although I don't expect it of you, I really need your help."

The ship still remained motionless.

"Look, I guess you could say I want to make a deal with you. You can't get around without people wanting to claim you, I can't get around without you, period. My parents were taken by pirates as slaves and I want to save them (here her voice wobbled a bit), and well... I'd be willing to help you out in return for helping me. Please?"

Still silence. Mar sighed.

"They weren't lying about what happened to your captain, were they?"

There was a sadness in the silence that followed.

"_Sunny,_ do you know happened to the rest of the crew?"

The Voice that replied made her jump. "_Downstairs..._" This was accompanied by a thump from downstairs, as though something heavy had fallen to the floor.

She really hoped that that thump wasn't a corpse, but now that the cantankerous ship was finally communicating she couldn't miss the chance. Gathering up her courage and trusting the ghost-ship not to kill her, she descended below decks once more.

* * *

In the middle of the girl's room, a book now lay on the floor. Given that the shelves were still in order (other than the one the _Sunny _had tried to topple on her earlier), it was obvious that this was what _Sunny _had wanted to show her. Even as she picked it up she could tell it was old, and time had yellowed the pages that had lain undisturbed for quite some time.

It was a journal. She knew immediately from the neat, precise handwriting that it had belonged to Nico Robin, the archeologist of the Straw Hats. And of course, if she were to get any closer to solving the mystery of Luffy's execution and this new pirate age, the record of the Oharan scholar would be invaluable.

She skipped the beginning parts, jumping to the end where the latest entries were. Maybe because it had been on her mind, it wasn't long before the name "Monkey D. Madelyn" leapt out at her.

_The woman those pirates had called the Pirate Queen..._

From what those two had said earlier, the fate of the Straw-Hats had somehow been tied to that woman. So Mar settled herself into a comfortable sofa, and began to read.

* * *

**End of Chapter 6**


	7. The Perspective of a Journal

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, which the author openly admits was inspired by another existing work.

_"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius." - Some cool old British guy from Baker Street._

**Chapter 7: The Perspective Of a Journal**

* * *

One of the most fascinating aspects of reading a diary or journal is that it allows you to get into the mind of someone else. In fact, one may say this of almost any kind of chronicle written from a first-person perspective.

Depending on the skill of the writer, this may or may not be a good thing. This is why format and perspective is a vitally important consideration whenever embarking on any literary maneuver, and no, first-person and third-person perspectives are not that easily interchangeable. If one _must _use the first-person, one does hope that the target protagonist's head is a nice, or at least, interesting, place to be.

Journals in particular, thanks to the tradition of almost always being written in the first-person, are very susceptible to being turned into:

A) Extremely boring wastes of prose ("Today I had roast beef for lunch. It was medium rare and the Yorkshire pudding was soggy. I can't remember what today's weather was like but I broke my nail today.")

B) Self-absorbed narcissistic monologues ("I went up to the professor and sucker-punched him in the face. Everyone else started clapping because I'd managed to do what no one else in the school had ever had the courage to do, stand up to that greasy haired bully. I had proven myself as someone to take seriously.")

or

C) Insufferably whiny venting outlets (This would be something rather like Mar's own diary, which was peppered with sentences like: "No one in this world understands me, Diary. Why can't they just accept me for who I am?" or "Mom made me take out the trash when it was raining outside. This is the kind of parents I have, Diary. I could have caught a cold all she says is to remember to put on a coat and take a warm bath afterwards.").

Well, you get the idea.

In retrospect I guess we should be all glad that Mar's diary is now at the bottom of the ocean, presumably tormenting any curious fishman or merman unfortunate enough to stumble across it (and foolish enough to actually try and read it as if the 'Mar's Secret Diary - DO NOT READ!' warning on the front cover was not sufficient deterrent).

Fortunately for Mar and myself (and by extension, you all, since I am narrating Mar's story to you), Nico Robin's journal was nothing like any of the above examples.

* * *

_Tuesday, June 15_ _th_ _,_

_Received a rather intriguing den-den mushi call from the Heart Pirates. Apparently the Dark Doctor himself would like a peaceful meeting with us on a nearby winter island._

_Luffy immediately agreed. After all, he likes Law-san, and he still is grateful to him for what he did for Luffy during the aftermath of the Whitebeard war._

_I have to admit quite a few of us have reservations on meeting the man. I am quite aware that being the rivals and the two crews closest to finding One Piece, there is a high chance this could be a trick to get rid of the competition._

_However neither Nami or Zoro have been able to talk Luffy out of it, so Nami is resigned to changing her course._

_Chopper is delighted. I think he misses winter islands and the string of hot summer islands that we have been encountering recently has been taking its toll on him._

* * *

_Wednesday, June 16_ _th_ _,_

_Today we rendezvoused with Law-san's group._

_We were much surprised to learn that Law had proposed this meeting to let Luffy know that he had made a new addition to his crew. While what the captain of the Heart Pirates does with his crew roster is no business of ours, it turns out this was a special case, as the new addition was none other than Monkey D. Madelyn, Luffy's twin sister._

_After the discovering out of the blue that Luffy's father is the revolutionary leader Monkey D. Dragon and his grandfather is the _ _Former Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp, (And the others tell me that his introduction of late Fire-Fist Ace was done similarly) I suppose this discovery of another member of the Monkey family should no longer surprise us. I will say however, that this new development fills me with something that can only be described as... uneasiness._

_We have sailed under our captain for a long time, but he has never ever made any mention of having a twin or a sister. Normally, it would be because 'We didn't ask' but I have a vague recollection of him, during one of Nami's mentions of how much she missed her sister Nojiko, specifically saying he never had a sister and wondering what that was like. Of course, my memory could have played me false, because on meeting this Madelyn, Luffy immediately greeted her with familiarity, and was for the want of a better word, fawning over the girl._

_She does look a lot like Luffy, but much prettier._

_The other thing that concerns me is the behaviour of Law-san. In our previous interactions with the man he was suave and aloof, but this time he was nothing like his former self. He seemed to be completely besotted with his new crew member and could not stop extolling her virtues to the rest of us._

_I much preferred the old Trafalgar Law, to be honest._

* * *

_Thusday, June 17_ _th_ _,_

_We are staying on the island for another day to restock and to allow Luffy to catch up with his sister. _ _She seems a wonderful person, and graceful and intelligent as she is beautiful. I can see why Trafalgar Law and everyone else is so impressed with her._

_I find it hard to believe that she and our captain are related._

_Have I mentioned she is really beautiful? And smart?_

* * *

_Friday, June 18_ _th_ _,_

_We said our goodbyes and left the winter island two hours ago._

_Luffy spent most of his time with his sister, Apparently they've both vowed to be the Pirate King and Pirate Queen respectively. While our captain's aspirations are well-known, it did seem rather odd that he would be so amenable to his twin gunning for what is essentially the same title._

_Over the two dinners, they regaled us with much of their childhood stories. This was how we discovered that Madelyn too ate a devil fruit, and while she has been evasive about the exact nature of the powers it has given her, it does appear that she was required to use them periodically to save her twin from certain death multiple times during their tender years. Some of the stories stretch my suspension of disbelief, but everyone seems have accepted her word as gospel._

_I'm still disturbed over why we have never heard of Madelyn before this._

_I am also disturbed by my previous entry. I must have been intoxicated when I wrote that._

* * *

_Sunday, June 20_ _th_ _,_

_I called a favour from my revolutionary contacts and got the bounty information on Madelyn. She apparently holds the record for the highest bounty in the world: 666 million beri._

_The amount is amazing. But if it is so amazing, why have we not heard about her until now? This still disturbs me._

* * *

_Monday, July 12_ _th,_

_We recently received news that Trafalgar Law has given up his post as the captain of the Heart pirates to Madelyn, to better focus on his duties as a doctor._

_I do not know what to say to this._

* * *

_Monday, July 19_ _th,_

_The captain has gone missing. We have searched everywhere, but no one can recall when he disappeared from the ship. We have formed search parties, to no avail. Usopp has suggested contacting our allied pirate crews for help but Zoro is against it, saying this is an internal matter._

_I can only hope that is just a silly prank on his part._

* * *

_Tuesday, July 20_ _th,_

_This cannot have happened. We received a den-den call from Drake-san with news regarding Luffy. At first none of us wanted to believe it, but when we received other calls from several of our other allies, we had no choice but to. _ _  
_

_**Luffy has somehow been abducted and will be executed by the marines in Loguetown in four days.**_

_How is this possible? Putting the impossibility of the marines coming in and taking him away from right under our noses aside, there is no way that any single person who one night was in the deepest reaches of the New World could be abducted and transported to the East Blue in the scant space of a day. Even the Tyrant Kuma's devil fruit power took three whole days to transport us all to where we all ended up all those years ago._

_I am no longer sure if this is a dream or some sort of delusional nightmare of mine._

_If it is I can only hope I wake up soon._

* * *

_Wednesday, July 21st,_

_Nami has pulled out all the stops to get the Sunny to Loguetown. But even with our best estimates, there is no way we can get there in time by sailing the conventional routes._

_It was Zoro who first brought it up, and had it been for any other reason, we would have all called him insane for even suggesting it. Yet when he proposed that we, as he says, "screw convention and cut across the Calm Belt and into the East Blue", all so we can make it in time to stop the execution, no one disagreed._

_As I write this we are preparing for what must sound to the rest of the world like a suicide attempt to shortcut out of the Grand Line. But I have faith in Franky and Nami's skill._

_They will get us across safely._

_I trust my nakama._

* * *

_An update on our situation: we have received pledges of help from our allies in our time of need. Those who were stationed closer to the East Blue are rushing to Loguetown, hoping to get there ahead of us and delay or stop the execution, while others have volunteered to guard our flanks during our dangerous crossing._

_I know this is not the time for this, but I do note that aid has been not been forthcoming from the Heart pirates. As Madelyn is Luffy's sister and twin, no less, one might have expected a more compassionate response than "Someone has to make sure Kidd does not manage to get One Piece during Luffy's absence."_

_It would seem that their new captain is lacking in what the Heart pirates are named for._

* * *

_Thursday, July 22nd,_

_My hand is still trembling from the journey across the Calm Belt. Without sea-stone to line the hull we were under constant attack by sea-kings. Only with the strength of the crew and the other ships that volunteered to accompany us on this madman's undertaking did we manage to make it through._

_It grieves me to have to record that 'The Rolling Stone' was lost in the crossing with all hands on board. We did not have time to stop and light candles for dear Lola and her crew, but we all held a moment of silence to honour their heroic sacrifices._

* * *

_I begin to dread each time I pick up this pen. But someone has to record all that has happened. I will not allow history to be rewritten by the world government as it has been doing in every war it waged for the last few centuries._

_When we sailed into the East Blue and approached the Reverse Mountain, the first thing to greet us was the smouldering ruins of many wrecked ships. We soon found out that the Marines had gotten wind of our approach and attempted to execute Luffy ahead of schedule._

_However, our allies got there in time to intervene and bought us time we needed... at great expense. _ _Most of the non-Marine casualties appear to have belonged to the Revolutionary Army, but I noticed that one of the wrecks was a pirate ship. __I am very sure, and Franky agrees with me,_ that that wrecked pirate ship is 'The Shadow Hind', or at least, what was left of it. It is not hard to mistake, only one pirate crew sails on a former Marine flagship with black sails and inverted colours.

_I fear greatly for the fate of our allies. I only can hope that they managed to escape. _ _Or even that they simply took heavy damage and had to withdraw from battle, because the alternatives do not bear thinking about._

* * *

_We are approaching Loguetown. Even from this distance I can hear the sounds of battle, see the columns of smoke from where the survivors of the first skirmish are engaging the overwhelming Marine forces._

_Luffy is not dead yet. We still have a chance._

_The Marines cannot be allowed to repeat what they did at Marineford all those years ago. We cannot allow it._

_We will not allow it._

_I_

_will_

_not_

_allow_

_it._

* * *

The last line of this harrowing narrative had been written in a jagged, shaking scrawl. On the surface of the paper, little blotches of uneveness and bleeded ink betrayed the the state of mind of the one who had up to then, composedly chronicled the unfolding tragedy.

With a growing dread Mar turned the page, but it, and the remainder of the book, had been left blank.

* * *

**End of Chapter 7**

* * *

_**This chapter was inspired by another fic written in a similar format. I make no pretense of this fact, and in fact I encourage you to check it out. If you liked this series so far, I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy "Mary Sue Must Die" by Amethyst Turtle , although in that fic, the usage of this written form was played for comedy but here I went quite in the opposite direction.**_

_**You should be able to find the fic from my Favourites list if a google does not suffice.  
**_


	8. The Dark Side of the Rock Island

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, which may occasionally side-track into actual plot.

**Chapter 8: The Dark Side of the Rock Island**

* * *

When Mar awoke the next morning, she was momentarily surprised to find herself still on the sofa, with a crick in her neck and the journal still on her lap. Judging from the light from outside, it was late morning.

She was surprised, as I said, because it was the first time since she had arrived on the _Sunny _that she'd ever been allowed to sleep uninterrupted the whole night through. As you will recall, her previous nights aboard the ship had involved some rather inconvenient supernatural heckling.

It was slightly disappointing to note that they were still stuck at the same spot next to that rock island, if that little outcrop of rock above the waves could really be called an island. Still, it was an improvement. Perhaps the ship had finally decided to take a break from trying to kill her.

"Hey er... _Sunny_?"

Only the creak of the floorboards answered.

"Thanks for showing me this. But it's not the whole story, is it?"

"_Uhh uh..."_

Despite expecting an answer Mar still jumped violently at this. It might not be as hostile as it had been, but the _Sunny's_ ghost thing could still be creepy as hell.

With reverence, Mar placed the tragic journal back into its spot on the shelf. "She... she never came back from that battle, did she?"

There was no need to explain who Mar meant by 'she'. A long night of thinking had yielded that conclusion, as Nico Robin was not the type to leave something as important as the chronicle of a world-changing event unfinished... unless something had prevented her from doing so. Judging from her last words, there could only be one logical conclusion to that. And it filled Mar with an overwhelming sadness.

"Was she the only...?"

"_Outside."_

"Huh?"

"_Outside. Look."_

She obeyed the ship's ghost and peered out the porthole. It was on the same side facing the rock island. "Uh... I don't see any—"

"_Loooook!" _The ghostly whisper was insistent.

It was the glint of the bright morning sun reflected off a shining surface that caught her eye. Mar squinted. Between two rock projections there was a gap, behind which, something small was sparkling.

Funny, she'd been stuck next to that rock island for well over a day now, but she had never really examined it closely. As she clattered up the stairs and back on deck, she wondered if those two... the crazy female swordswoman and Slash-face or whatever-his-name-was had left something there.

As she prepared to get off the ship, she hesitated. It could be a trick by the _Sunny _to lure her off the ship and abandon her on the rock. But surely, after all they had been through, they were well past that now?

She snuck a look at the two-man kayak that had previously belonged to the boarders. Well at least if the ghost-ship took off without her, at least she'd have an alternative way of getting off the rock.

"I'm going to have a closer look. Please don't leave me, ok?"

No response. Not even the boom swinging around to kill her.

Nothing to it but to do it then. Mar stepped off the deck and clambered on to the rock island. Scanning the surface for the two rocks she had seen from the porthole, she soon found the gap where she had glimpsed the shining object.

It was a dagger. It had been embedded blade-first into a rock. Judging from the corrosion it had been there for a while, and the shining object she had seen had been a cracked gem decorating its hilt.

Mar's step slowed a little. She had a dread suspicion she knew what this was. Taking another step to the pinnacle of the rock island, she could now see the other side clearly (which had been hidden from her view when she had been on the ship). At this point she froze, her breath coming in fast as she took in the concealed landscape.

"Oh gawd... I've been next to... _that_ all this while?" said a horrified Mar to herself.

On the other side of the island, hidden from her eyes all this while, three large boulders had been hewn out into uniform slabs. The first one had the aforementioned dagger mounted on top, the second appeared to be blank and the third...

The third had two swords mounted blade-first into it, in the same style as the dagger. There was a space left on the middle where a third one should have been, but it was missing.

I should not need to tell you the names of those three swords. I think you will have already guessed them. Mar certainly did.

* * *

I hope you won't feel what Mar did next was ridiculous, if I tell you she broke down and cried very long and hard at this grisly discovery. It was bad enough to hear what had happened to Luffy and suspect what had happened to Robin. But having it confirmed like this and then finding the graves was just too much for a girl who in all fairness, had been through a lot in the past few days.

But I should emphasize that this alone wasn't the cause of Mar's breakdown. No, the straw that broke the camel's back, as they say, was because the graves had been defaced.

It should not surprise you that things like this do happen, especially over the period of many years. Unfortunately there do exist scum that choose to take revenge in the most cowardly of ways. In all probability it was the work of some lowly pirates that never stood a chance against the Straw-Hats and had come to get their own back at the dead. Of course there is also the probability that the defilement was not a personal matter, but rather one of economics. Grave robbers don't particularly care about the dead, just the possessions they bring with them.

In any case, while Mar is busy crying her eyes out, I suppose I should make use of this time and outline to you all that she saw:

The first grave, the one with the dagger, she had identified as Robin's. There was not the slightest doubt about it, because on the side of the stone block, there was a small metal plaque attached with her name and a short epitaph.

**NICO ROBIN**

**DAUGHTER OF NICO OLVIA**

**THE LAST ARCHEOLOGIST OF OHARA**

**AND TREASURED NAKAMA**

So Mar's hunch had been right. And it was a terrible thing to be right in this case.

Unfortunately she was at a loss on whose grave the second one was. There had been writing, but someone had, out of malice, destroyed the plaque, and any writing on it was now indecipherable. And there had been no weapon on top to help her identify it.

The last one was undoubtedly Zoro's. It should not have surprised anyone that the middle sword, which as you all have probably guessed should have been the one called _Shusui_, was missing. Grave robbers would not have passed up a valuable sword like that, and if this narrator remembers it correctly, that sword supposedly has some sort of ultra-durable, off-the-Mohs-scale-kind-of-hardness quality.

Which is mostly likely why the other two swords had been left there. Both of them had been broken, and had been roughly welded together for the purposes of adorning the memorial. Worthless to robbers, they had been left untouched. The plaque in front of the tombstone hadn't been as fortunate, and Mar could only make out the letters:

**NOA Z**

**EST SWORDSMA**

But even in the most terrible of findings there is hope, and the Logic-Logic fruit helped Mar see it once she had finished with her (I'm sorry to say) rather inelegant crying.

* * *

The Logic-Logic fruit had been giving her a headache thanks to the illogical-ness of crying for fictional characters she had never met. This did not make it any easier for Mar to stop blubbering, but it sure made it vastly more comfortable for her when she did stop, because she found rational thought much easier and realization flooded in.

They were dead, it was true.

But someone had to have brought those bodies here. Someone had to have built these memorials. And an ally of the Straw-Hats would not have put the epitaph that referred to Robin as a 'treasured nakama'.

And most important of all, the evidence was strong enough that she could infer from this that at least one of the Straw-Hats had survived the Battle of Loguetown.

When Mar finally gathered herself and returned to the ship (which by some surprising turn of events, had stayed still and not zoomed off once she'd gotten on the rock), she sat down one of the steps and tried to piece together the events that must have taken place all those years ago.

A strange girl purporting to be Luffy's sister with an insane bounty and vast-but-undefined powers had suddenly appeared. A mysterious abduction and a war waged to prevent the execution of the future Pirate King. All signs pointed to the Straw-Hats' side having lost the war. And in the process, they took the heavy loss of Zoro, Robin and one other Straw-Hat who did not have a weapon.

She wondered who it was who lay beneath that unidentified grave. It was unlikely to be Brook, Nami or Usopp, she decided, as their respective weapons (or a replica of them) would probably have been included on the memorial. Unless whatever it was had long since crumbled away from exposure to the elements.

She was also fairly certain the person who had built those graves had been Franky. The handiwork of the stone-cutting and the welded swords spoke for itself. It was highly doubtful he had done that alone, and the poetic nature of the epitaphs implied someone else had composed them. Who? Usopp? Nami?

"Now I think I understand why you sailed here. I'm sorry," said she to the ship.

There was still the question of how the _Sunny_ had come to be hidden down in the depths of the ocean. And why was the _Shark Submerge_ still missing? Who else had survived?

And how did the Heart Pirates figure into all of this? What had happened to _them?_

Mar looked up at the mast. "Sunny, what happened after that? And where did the survivors go? And why did they leave at all?"

Only silence. But for some reason the lion figurehead looked almost as though it were crying.

"You don't know, do you?"

Silence.

"Do you want to find out?"

Silence.

"Look, I told you before, I want to find out what happened here too. So let me make a deal with you. I ate the Logic-Logic fruit. It makes me all logical and stuff and as Sherlock Holmes says, that makes me a good choice for finding that out the truth. I swear on my word I'll help you find out what happened to the rest of your crew, but please, help me find my parents. Please?"

A stiff breeze suddenly blew, ruffling Mar's hair and the Straw-Hat slung behind her back.

And with that, the_ Sunny_ gave its answer. The sails unfurled and immediately filled with wind. The ship started moving, and before long the rock island and the dark memory it upheld was barely anything but a speck in the horizon again.

"Right..." said Mar, as she stowed away the two-man kayak she had salvaged earlier. "It's a deal then."

* * *

Days later Mar found herself staring in awe at the place they had arrived at.

Tall trees stretched up into the sky, wreathed by a cloud of rising bubbles. Clustered rows of ships were moored off the many docks, which teemed with people. In the distance, a gigantic ferris wheel could be seen.

She didn't have to be told to know what this place was. All those years, it didn't appear to have changed much. In fact it looked exactly as it did in the every depiction of it that she had ever seen:

_Sabaody Archipelago._

* * *

**End of Chapter 8**


	9. An EnSuephalitis Encounter

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, which declines to match pacing with den-den mushi and prefers a rather brisk trot instead.

**Chapter 9: An EnSuephalitis Encounter**

* * *

Once you got over the coolness of being there, Mar found that Sabaody Archipelago is not a very nice place to be wandering around alone.

Having been sensible enough to realize that sailing into the main harbours with THE _Thousand Sunny_ was asking to be boarded and ship-jacked, she'd arranged for the ship to remain offshore, hidden in one of the more remote groves, while she kayaked to shore.

She was much relieved to discover that most of people there just ignored her presence.

While it sounds like bad self-esteem to want to be ignored, the glut of unsavory characters that patrolled Sabaody would convince one otherwise. Especially if one is a small teenaged girl with no fighting ability and a non-combat devil-fruit. Unless of course you counted a blue belt in karate, which in today's dumbed-down standards, is pretty much useless anyway.

Despite being endowed with measurably more sense, it must be said that Mar was still a brash teenager, and didn't listen to her devil-fruit-bestowed sense as much as she should have. For one, she didn't bring a weapon. And also, she brought the straw-hat along with her.

* * *

In most stories where an original character finds themselves on Sabaody Archipelago, you tend to will notice a certain pattern. Namely:

(1) They run into one of the Eleven Supernovas, usually one of the attractive male ones, or he pops up and rescues them, or

(2) They run into pirates who would attempt to rob the protagonist after which events follow (1)

Or replace 'pirates' with 'slavers' in (2), after which they end up...

(3) in the slave auction house where the poor beautiful 'speshul' OC is being auctioned off to either Kid or Law.

And very frequently:

(4) An encounter with the Tennryubito/Celestial Dragons, who would either shoot you for the hell of it, or take you as slaves just because they are bastards. Sometimes they do both.

Nothing is technically wrong with the above, except that it's been done before and clearly a rather pale imitation of the original Straw-Hats' adventures in Sabaody. You might as well write thinly-disguised rip-off some other arc in canon, like the OC char actually being a princess of a desert kingdom undergoing rebellion or is actually the hunted Devil's Advocate of Araho, which the World Government previously Buster Called into oblivion (although with such an irritating copycat character on it, one can't really blame them for doing that).

_Anyway_, we all know that in most stories, the inclusion of Sabaody is a thinly-disguised plot device to ensure that the OC joins Law/Kid/Hawkins/Drake or any other attractive male Supernova's crew so their 'romance' can start. (Incidentally, Apoo, Capone and Urouge must be thanking their lucky stars that they are gonks, which is probably some of the best deterrents one can have, but I am digressing here.)

Now where was I? Ah yes... _anyway, _if we were to follow that pattern, this is what would have happened: Mar, in the short period between leaving the _Sunny_ and arriving on the archipelago, had suddenly caught the eye of someone there.

This could have been because she had, without knowing it, had also caught a disease which was still in its dormant stages and would probably fully infect her in a few days if it had been allowed to fester. Where she had caught the disease was a mystery, but all signs pointed to her prior entanglement with the two boarders who had tried to take the _Sunny. _Fortunately, she was rescued by a Good Samaritan of a doctor, who promptly cured her of it.

In most other stories, the text describing the above occurrence would have sounded like this:

* * *

_She suddenly felt dizzy, and stumbled to her knees. And then she passed out rather conveniently._

_What is wrong with me? Why do I feel sick? Thought she, desperately._

_When she woke up again, she realized that someone was bending over her._

"_Don't worry, I have already neutralized the infection," said a man with dark hair and a goatee, who was wearing a furry hat with spots and a yellow shirt with a smiley face on it. Behind him was a white polar bear in a jumpsuit who was holding the doctor's nodachi (that's a long japanese sword) and bag._

_"All the same," said the man. "We should take you back to the infirmary on our submarine because randomly treating strange girls on the street who fall sick is so what the cruel Dark Doctor of the North Blue always does even though it makes no sense."_

* * *

Being an up-to-date narrator, I must also make a mention of how, in the listings of most of those stories, the name "T. Law" is already listed in the character field, so there is really no mystery about who the gallant saviour is. And yet the writer would proceed to introduce the gallant saviour as if the audience hadn't heard of him before, often with a description lazily ripped out of canon (Known as the Surgeon of Death, bounty of 200 million beli, incredibly handsome and cool, Heart Pirates, North Blue bla bla bla).

If this narrator were to have Basil Hawkins' abilities, and were to read the cards on what is likely to happen after, this would be the prediction:

"Probability of the meeting not sounding contrived and actually making sense: 10%. Probability of Trafalgar Law acting in character: 9%. Probability of the character being being a passably attractive girl with an ability that might benefit the Heart Pirates: 90%. Probability of romance: 99%. Probability of plot: 5%. Probability of the fic not being abandoned after the story runs out of steam because the writers will realize once the two characters get together there is nothing to drive the story on: 0.01%."

Fortunately for this narrator's sanity, this was not how it happened to Mar.

For one, she did not collapse or anything. In fact, she was just walking along the busy streets discreetly when an alarmed shout suddenly went off beside her ear, making her jump.

"_**WARNING! INFESTATION DETECTED!"**_

The sound was coming from a man who was sitting on the side of the road. It was not a man who was wearing a fuzzy hat. In fact one couldn't be sure if it _was_ a man or woman, because while the figure was indeed man-shaped, it was completely encased in a bulky hazard suit with a tinted visor.

"_**DISINFECTION IN PROGRESS..."**_

Before she knew it, the hazard-suited man had whipped out a couple of cans of what looked like aerosol and was vigorously spraying her with it.

"What are you doing?" Mar shrieked, naturally objecting to the sudden invasion of her personal space.

"_**Disinfection is complete! subject no longer a carrier, culling is not necessary- WARNING! INFESTATION DETECTED!"**_

At this the strange man went running off in the direction of another person on the street, and sprayed her all over too. Somewhat in shock, Mar picked up one of the discarded spray cans and found this written on it:

**The Disinfector's Cure for EnSuephalitis**

That settled it, the man was starking mad. Mar just hoped that whatever it was he had sprayed on her, it wasn't acid or anything.

Mar was about to make herself scarce when she noticed that unlike her, the other woman the Disinfector had 'disinfected' hadn't taken very kindly to the process. She turned out to be a swordsman and had drawn her blade, mouthing off about how her honour had to be reclaimed by taking the man's life.

"_**RABID SIGNS DETECTED! CULLING IN PROGRESS..."**_

The next moment, Mar screamed, because the Disinfector had pulled out what looked like an autopsy knife and 'culled' the swordswoman in a terrifyingly swift movement. She wasn't even sure how he had done it, just that one moment the absurdly bulky-looking man was just standing here, the next moment he had walked over to the sword-wielding woman, done something, and she had fallen to the ground, dead with a Y-shaped cut to her front.

Her scream was most unfortunate. For one, no one paid her any attention due to the inherent lawlessness of the place. Secondly, it refocused the attention of the Disinfector back to her. As he walked towards her, the bloody knife still in hand, Mar froze in fear. Her headache was telling her she should run. She should do something! But her legs wouldn't move even though a psycho killer was coming...

"_**Why is subject walking around Sabaody with this appearance and in possession of THE Straw Hat?"**_

"Wh... hat?"

"_**Very dangerous to be impersonating pirate queen, or Straw-Hat Luffy. Pirates here will not approve due to prior incident regarding Demalo Black."**_

"I'm not Demalo Black." Not having read that far into the story of the Straw Hats, Mar did not recognize the name.

"_**Of course not. But subject has marked resemblance to Pirate Queen. If subject is thinking of passing self off as related to Straw-Hat, fat bastard tried last time. His ending was not nice."**_

Mar started. She was beginning to remember a bit of the latest chapter of the manga she had read. "Wait... you're talking about Fluffy?"

"_**FLUFFY**?"_

"Uh..." Mar suddenly realized how stupid fandom names could sound in actual conversation. "I know who you are talking about. This fat pirate who tried to impersonate Straw-Hat Luffy right? I uh... call him Fake Luffy. Or uh... F-Luffy... Fluffy—"

To Mar's relief, in response to this, there was a burst of what sounded like laughter from the Disinfector. _**"Subject is amusing. THE DISINFECTOR APPROVES."**_

It might have been a golden opportunity to mine for more information on the fate of the Straw-Hats since the madman appeared so knowledgable and seemed to be a bit more friendly (i.e. not intending to kill her), but Mar never managed it. This was because something else had caught her attention and it was something so pressing that she ran after it, leaving the chuckling Disinfector behind.

It was a bubble-vehicle and its cargo. And it could move a lot faster than she could. She barely managed to keep it in sight before it stopped outside a slave shop and she had to stop running because there was a stitch in her side and she was about to collapse from the exertion.

But as a reward she saw a second glimpse of it: the back of a man's head.

And moreover, she was very sure that it had been her father's.

* * *

**End of Chapter 9**


	10. The Filial Bargain

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, where the author has just instructed the narrator to stop digressing so much and just get on with it.

**Chapter 10: The Filial Bargain**

* * *

Mar was running. Again.

In fact she was running back the same way she had come, towards where she had left her kayak.

As she passed the corpse of the swordswoman who had been 'culled' by the deranged Disinfector, she noted that 1) No one had bothered to do anything about it, and 2) The man himself was no where to be seen.

Still, there was no time for her to regret being unable to get information about the Straw-Hats from him. Right now she was racing against time. There is a good reason why.

Earlier, when Mar had caught her breath and attempted to enter the slave shop she was sure she had seen her father being herded into, the guards at the door, on seeing her humble attire and tatty straw-hat, immediately positioned themselves in front of the entrance. She was duly informed that "street-trash like you aren't allowed in". She'd taken a single look at their intimidating bulks, armed to the teeth, and wisely backed off like a frightened rabbit.

Mar was not a particularly bloodthirsty person, but it had to be said that at the very moment, she did wish that her devil-fruit had been something that would have allowed her to blast those two guards into oblivion. But sadly, the only fight her devil-fruit was probably ever going to let her win was probably one at a debating club.

It was very good at helping her think of alternative solutions to a problem though.

If looks were the reason why she was being kept out, the logical thing to do would be to change her appearance to that of something more befitting the clientele of a slave shop. That, and find some money to buy her father's freedom with.

There was also the question of where to get the items she needed to do all this, and the answer was obvious. Surely between Robin's and Nami's clothing she could find something suitable. In addition, she was on the ship of the man who was in the running for the Pirate King. It was highly unlikely that they'd be flat broke, although perhaps after the disastrous battle of Loguetown it was hard to say. Still, if she was desperate, there was the jewelry...

If the _Sunny_ didn't kill her for taking that.

While all this was running through her mind, she was still physically running as well. Well, I say 'running', but most people, especially the sedentary ones from the modern world, are not capable of running non-stop. Most of them have the stamina to run at full pelt for about oh, a hundred meters before succumbing to exhaustion. Mar was no exception. In fact, most of her journey was really her running, then slowing down to catch her breath, walking, and running again. Rinse and repeat.

When she finally got to her kayak she realized that she still had rowing to do, and then there was the whole rowing back and getting back to the slave shop, and it made her want to scream in frustration and tiredness. It doesn't sound like this was such a herculean effort, but I assure you it was. If you don't believe me, try it sometime. It's not as impressive as what you read about people doing in the books, but trust me when I say it says a lot about Mar that despite all, this she didn't give up and kept forcing herself on.

In fact, you could say fear lent her wings. Because she knew how these things worked in stories, and to get her father back she had to buy him back before anyone else did.

* * *

Now with the information that Mar was trying her best to get her father back in mind, let's take a break from Mar's perspective and go back to the slave shop. The owner of the slave-shop was having a slow day, but he was hoping his new stock of slaves would change that.

Sure enough, before long a richly-dressed woman came waltzing through the door.

A quick glance at her jeweled attire and elegant dress convinced him that this was a woman with with money to spend. But even as he handled her enquires for a disposable slave to carry her shopping for her (her previous one having just dropped dead, the useless hunk of trash) he was struck by how familiar she looked even though he couldn't place her exactly. He _could_ have asked for her name, but that would offend her if she were somebody important and he didn't know, so he was too scared to ask.

It was just as he was showing her one of the new arrivals, when it hit him just who he was talking to.

"What's wrong with you _now?" _said the woman in annoyance, notcing his sudden change in demeanour. "You're sweating all over the place. Disgusting!"

"It's j-just a little hot here today," the slave salesman said, trying his best to conceal his fear.

"Well how much is this one then?" said the woman, jerking her head at the new stock, which was fidgeting furiously but had learned from experience that it was wise to keep quiet in these circumstances.

"For anyone else, it would be five-hundred thousand beli," the salesman, still dripping with sweat, managed to say.

The woman threw back her head and looked at him as if he were a puny worm. "And me?"

"Y-you're an exception. Only two hundred and fifty thousand..." the man trailed off as he saw her eyes narrow. "...would be still too much for your august presence, your Majesty! For you it's free! Free!"

"Very well then. The slave-collar controls." At this, she extended her hand, the expensive gold bangles jangling as she moved. "Thank you. Oh and... your compliance will be rewarded. Come, Slave!"

With that, she left, with the slave in tow and the salesman with his knees still shaking.

The guards, seeing the state of their manager, were curious. "Was that woman trouble, boss?"

"Trouble?" the boss squeaked as he sat down hard on a chair. "Did you not see who that was before you let her in, you numbskulls?"

"Some rich noble...?"

"_Some rich noble?"_

"That's what we th—"

"_**You damned fools! Have you not seen wanted posters of her before? That was Monkey D. Madelyn, the Pirate Queen!"**_

"What?"

"But, she disappeared... years ago!"

"Well, she's back now." The salesman reached for his den-den mushi. "I'm calling the Marines. And you two, get ready and pack everything up, we're closing the shop for the day."

* * *

Some distance away from the shop, the woman identified by the salesman as 'Monkey D. Madelyn', and her newly acquired slave were walking.

"This should be far enough. Stop," said the woman to the slave.

Now, the savvy reader will have realized earlier that the slave bought was _obviously_ Mar's dad.

The even more savvy reader will expect that this is the point where Mar comes running up, only to find the shop closed and her goal of buying her father back thwarted, because that's how it always works in those stories where the author is a cruel, sadistic bastard who likes making their protagonists suffer and where the most pragmatic solution is never the one that works.

But as it turned out, what happened next would throw all those expectations out the window, because at that moment, the woman's haughty attitude had dropped. The next moment, she was hugging the slave, who was hugging her back just as fiercely.

And, the most savviest of readers will have guessed the truth by now of course, but I might as well go ahead and confirm it for you with some dialogue:

"Dad, are you all right?"

"Mar! I'm so glad you're safe! You were amazing!"

"...I'm so glad it WAS you... I wasn't expecting it to be so easy! I mean he mistook me for someone important but I decided to just play along and ohmygosh I can't believe it worked out so well!"

"...and you looked just like your mother for a moment! Never ever seen you wearing a dress... where did you get those clothes? How did you get here? Is your mother with you?"

"Wasn't she with you?"

"She was, but she was sold before we even got to that shop." Mar's father's bespectacled face darkened as he said this.

Mar was understandably distraught at this, but Logic-Logic fruit immediately dictated that its user not spend time angsting and work on a practical solution instead.

"Do you remember who they were? Maybe we can get her back from them."

To those of you who thought that the author was being charitable to Mar for letting her get her father back so easily, the next line should assure you that the author is still a mean, evil and sadistic person.

"I couldn't hear the name properly, but I got a good look at him," Mar's dad told her as he tried to figure out the controls to the slave-collar. "But he was rather stupid-looking, so we might have a chance. I mean—" (at this he shook his head), "—if we weren't slaves at that time we would have laughed at him I think. He looked so ridiculous, walking around with that gold-fish bowl on his head and all."

At this point Mar's dad had to stop and ask Mar what was wrong, because the expression on her face had been one of absolute horror.

Now, in case you weren't convinced that the author has a sadistic streak yet, this narrator is sure that next occurrence should cinch it. Before Mar could explain to her dad what a Tenryuubito a.k.a. Celestial Dragon was and make him understand how horrible it was that her mother had been taken by one of those world nobles, the next development put that out of their minds.

It was the patter of feet and a startled look from her dad at something behind her that made Mar turn around. Behind here was a marine official (she guessed he was at least a captain by his attire, he was wearing the Pimp Marine Coat) and a squadron of marines.

"Mar, who are those?"

"They're marines," she said slowly, her heart sinking. "They're like, police in this place?"

"That's great! That slave shop has to be illegal, and if we report it to them they'll be sure to close them down!"

"Dad, I don't think it works that way here..."

Mar, being more knowledgable than her dad about the world's workings, was right of course. But in hindsight, she really should have expected what happened next. And if she hadn't been so carried away in her reunion with her dad she would have known to hide after leaving the slave shop. Well, she was going to have to pay for her indiscretion now.

"Don't try anything! Put those hands where we can see them!"

The marines had all leveled their rifles at her and with fingers on the trigger, much to her dad's confusion. But when you are facing the business end of a gun, the wise thing to do is comply. Mar and her dad both did.

The captain, looking incredibly self important, but a little afraid, stepped forward, cleared his throat, and spoke.

"Monkey D. Madelyn! I hereby place you under arrest for the crime of Grand Piracy!"

* * *

...

Well, I told you the author was evil, didn't I?

* * *

**End of Chapter 10**

* * *

_**Q/A:**_

**Paulo:** I like the story but... I dont like the fact that there is "now in most other stories there is... etc" I know you're just trying to make your story different from the thousands that are pretty much the same here. Im sure you can do that already just by reading it.

_**A: Never let it be said that I don't take concrit. You're right, I do seem to be getting dangerously heavy-handed. Thanks for the advice and wake-up call.**_


	11. You All Meet In a Cell

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, complete with a demonstration of how to fail utterly in hypothesis testing and logic in general.

**Chapter 11: You All Meet In a Cell**

* * *

"For the last time, it's impossible for me to be Monkey D. Madelyn!" Mar said exasperatedly to the marine captain interrogating her. "I mean, you just said she disappeared twenty years ago! If I were her I'd have to be at least be my mid-thirties and I'm obviously not that old!"

"You mean you just don't _look_ that old," the captain replied, unimpressed. "But don't think we don't know you have a devil-fruit ability. I wouldn't be surprised if it gave you eternal youth!"

"That's ridiculous! I'm freaking _sixteen_!"

"Well let's test it out, shall we?" said the marine captain. Turning to his men, he instructed: "Throw her into the harbour. If she swims, she's innocent, if she sinks, she's obviously a devil-fruit user and the real thing."

Mar's headache wanted to point out that the illogical-ness of reasoning that being a devil-fruit user automatically made her the Pirate Queen, but before she could object to the inefficient experiment the marines had already tossed her into the water.

The results were as predictable as you would expect: she sank like a rock. Fortunately, before she drowned she was dragged out by two marines who had kindly consented to dive in after her.

It should be noted that if Father-Of-Mar hadn't been restrained by the other marines, he would have probably been in the middle of strangling the marine captain at this point.

"Well that settles it," said the idiotic marine captain, oblivious to the murderous looks (and Angrish) he was getting from the 'Pirate Queen's' slave. "Take them back to the base! We'll contact HQ that we have the Pirate Queen!"

And that was how Mar and her dad found themselves in the holding cells of the Sabaody Marine Base.

* * *

"_**The Disinfector greets Amusing Subject and would like to know why marines have detained Subject?"**_

The holding cells of the marine base was that last place Mar was expecting to run into the deranged Disinfector, but she supposed that it did make a lot of sense. A mad killer on the loose _would_ be scooped up by by the marines before long.

"They think I'm the Pirate Queen, Monkey D. Madelyn," she said glumly. She had been placed in a cell next to the one the marines had placed her dad in. "Did they get you for the swordswoman thing?"

"_**NEGATIVE. The Disinfector already wanted. Allowed capture on purpose. Safest here because of impending forecast."**_

"You mean the weather?"

The Disinfector merely chuckled again. _**"WEATHER? HA! Amusing Subject is amusing."**_

"Mar? Who is that?" her dad was watching the exchange with increasing confusion.

"Long story dad." Mar decided that the less she said about her first encounter with the Disinfector, the better. "Just someone I ran into before I found you."

"Well, this is obviously all a case of mistaken identity, but what's going to happen next? You're getting cleared soon once someone more competent than that idiot captain comes along, right?"

"Well they think I'm the Pirate Queen, so I guess they're going to get their higher-ups involved. Hopefully they'll clear up the whole thing but they don't," (here Mar swallowed nervously), "they might—"

"_**Standard Marine procedure for infamous pirates is incarceration in Impel Down or immediate execution without trial," **_was the Disinfector's unsolicited contribution.

"WHAT? LIKE HELL THEY WILL! That's not an acceptable option for my daughter!"

Mar had never seen this side of her dad before. In fact she hadn't seen much of her dad before, come to think of it. He usually worked most of the time and when he was home she rarely spent much time with him.

"Dad... calm down..."

"No I won't! First your mother and now... I've had it with this—" (here he let out a word this narrator probably shouldn't repeat since it would push the rating of this fic up a bit too much) "—world and it's—" (here he repeated the word again) "—everything! We're getting out of here!" In his anger he snapped his glasses, which he had been in the middle of cleaning.

"But Dad, we're locked in a cell."

Mar's father simply walked up to the lock and knelt before it. "Marie Denise Suesse, do you even know what your father does for a living?"

"Uh... you work for a big company?"

"A _security_ company. As a _lock_ systems security consultant," her father stressed the words as he fiddled with the wire frames of his now-useless glasses. "And more importantly, before that, he trained as a _locksmith_."

At that point her thought process (which was lacking the influence of the Logic-Logic fruit and was therefore working much less efficiently than usual) finally comprehended what her father was trying to tell her, and she could only manage a flat 'oh' of understanding as the lock suddenly gave and the cell door swung open.

"Ha! And your mother said I was wasting money on titanium glasses frames! Pfft, what a lousy medieval-age mechanism. They should have hired a security consultant. Now show me those stone cuffs they have on you and I'll have them off in a jiffy— what...?"

Mar couldn't keep the cheesy grin off her face. "Dad, I may have never told you this, but you are awesome!"

Oddly enough, the reaction wasn't quite what she expected. He suddenly looked touched. "No, you haven't… I would have remembered. But, thank you. It sounds so good to hear you say it." Then he smiled again, looking incredibly goofy. "We've wasted enough time, let's break out of this place and find your mother!"

* * *

As excellent as Mar's dad was at picking simple locks, I think we have firmly established that he, like Mar, was not much of a fighter. As both of them quickly realized, this was going to be a bit of a problem with the marine guards they were bound to run into.

The prosaic solution to this would be to release the rest of the prisoners being held in the holding cells, in order to stage a break-out in which they could safely escape. But before releasing a prisoner, it is just as well that you check to make sure the actual releasing of them is a good idea. You wouldn't want to release someone who would promptly murder you on the way out.

Now let's take a moment to examine the makeup of the prisoners in the holding cells.

As you all know there was the sinisterly deranged Disinfector. He was calmly sitting in the cell, still completely encased in the hazard suit and not even remotely distressed about being imprisoned.

Next to him was a beautiful woman who for some bizarre reason, had cat-ears. She was curled up and crying to herself, looking extremely pitiful.

And then there was a dashing-looking man dressed in leather, who also like Mar had been, clad in a pair of seastone cuffs. He was mouthing off about how the marines would never be able to keep him there for long.

And the last of all was what looked remarkably like a giant black-and-grey rock sitting the the corner of the last cell. If it weren't for the two eyes on top of it, you wouldn't have thought that it wasn't an inanimate object.

"Do we release them all?" wondered Mar.

"Release me! I am the world government's secret experiment who barely managed to escape, but they have recaptured me again. I'm a lynx werewolf. I'll join you in your escape!" the cat-girl said, on noticing their escape.

"Is that a zoan-fruit?" Mar asked curiously, earning an odd glance from her dad in the process.

"No, I am a were-lynx. I am not affected by seastone or the ocean. I will be a powerful ally!"

Mar couldn't remember lycanthropy being existent in the One Piece universe.

"_**ANOMALY DETECTED!"**_

The Disinfector seemed to agree with her unspoken thought. A clay mug went flying through the air, shattering and knocking the cat-girl out. Considering the distance and the difficulty of throwing the object from the inside of his cell, through the bars and into the other cell, the aim and force of the Disinfector was rather impressive.

"Forget her! Take me with you!" the man with the seastone-cuffs interrupted. "I am Wyvernpants D. Draco! I have an extremely powerful mythical zoan devil-fruit—"

"Yeah, the Dragon-Dragon fruit, right?" said Mar, feeling a headache coming on. The sea-stone cuffs were off and once again her need to think logically was back in full force.

"You are a genius, gorgeous!" He followed it up with a smirk and a wink.

"No hitting on my daughter, punk!" Mar's dad informed him sternly. "We're not releasing THAT one," he said to Mar.

"_**INFESTATION DETECTED! TERMINATE! TERMINATE!" **_was the Disinfector's contribution. Well, that and a flying clay bowl this time. It too, made a loud crack against the devil-fruit user's skull, and _he_ fell silent.

The sound unfortunately attracted the attention of the guard, who came in and immediately froze with an "Oh crap!" expression on his face. Then he turned to sound the alarm.

At least, he would have, if the Disinfector hadn't beaned him on the head with the clay plate that the prisoners had been given food on. The unfortunate marine slumped to the ground, unconscious.

"Well..." Mar's dad said in astonishment. "Thanks."

"_**LOCKSMITH IS WELCOME," **_the Disinfector said affably. **_"But Disinfector is out of crockery now."_**

"Give me a moment, I can get that lock open for you."

"Dad—" Mar was suddenly scared, remembering the Disinfector's homicidal tendencies.

Too late. The cell door swung open. But the Disinfector didn't seem to want to move.

"_**Not time to escape yet. Still waiting for forecast event in five minutes. The Disinfector advises Locksmith take fishman along. Least likely to be infected with enSuephalitis."**_

He was referring to the black rock-person-thing in the far cell. On hearing himself being mentioned, the rockman (or we should say fishman) raised his head and looked at them. In the process they got a much better look at him: a large hulking fishman, fascinatingly ugly with a curiously twisted torso and beady little black eyes. As we have mentioned before he looked remarkably like a black, sand-speckled rock, and could probably pass for one if he curled up, closed his eyes and kept still.

If this was the manga, there would be something the fandom calls an "Oda-Box" on display, which is a text box you immediately take notice of because you know this character is going to be important. In this case, the Oda-Box would have said something like this:

'Demon' Walker

Spiny Devilfish (Scorpionfish) Fishman

"Walker is not liking hunams," the fishman said at last. "Stupid hunams attacking Walker making him lost. Now not finding Gurnarde. And scared hunams lock seal Walker in jail even key not any using."

"Lock seal?" Mar parroted dumbly.

"That's going to be a problem," Mar's dad replied, peering at the lock through the broken frames of his glasses. Apparently he was somewhat better at deciphering the fishman's broken english. "They got scared of him and welded the lock shut. I won't be able to pick that."

"Hunams freeing Walker? Walker not being slave to hunams because."

"We're not looking for a slave. Hell I was a slave just earlier. We're just asking for a bit of help on breaking out."

"_**FORECASTED EVENT COMMENCING. Subjects should start leaving now,"**_ The Disinfector said suddenly.

"But Dad, if you can't pick the lock, how do we get him out?"

"I have an idea," her dad replied, scratching his neck where the slave collar was still chafing it. "Now, where did those marines put the controller to this thing?"

* * *

One lock-blowing explosion later, Mar found herself in the company of what could be considered one very bizarre group of prison escapees. In the front was the deranged Disinfector, flanked by the fishman Walker. She and her dad brought up the rear.

The halls of the Sabaody marine base were strangely deserted. The few guards that were there were very quickly taken care of by the two frontmen.

The Disinfector was ruthlessly dangerous, dispatching the marine grunts effortlessly with first a purloined crowbar and then a recently-despoiled sword in his other hand.

Walker on the other hand, needed no weapon, and when he uncurled himself to his full height, you could see why. Other than being huge and very powerful as was typical for a fishman, he also had extensible spine-spikes that he warned them to keep away from. Of couse they were venomous. Scorpionfish are not called scorpionfish just because the marine biologist who discovered them failed zoology.

As they fought their way out, Mar became aware that there seemed to be what sounded like continuous thunder rumbling coming from outside the building. When the Terrible Two (as her dad had quickly dubbed Walker and the Disinfector) in had cleared the last guard (the stupid marine captain was nowhere to be seen) and they stepped out the front door, they soon found out why.

"_**PERFECTLY TIMED. Stage one of forecasted event has concluded," **_announced the Disinfector.

The rest of them were too astonished to say anything. When they had been incarcerated in the holding cells, the base had been standing in the middle of a city built on giant mangroves.

But on their emergence, nothing looked like it had hours ago. In fact, almost all of the buildings on this side of Sabaody had been leveled. Some of the mangrove trees were down and destroyed. The rest that hadn't were in the process of being shelled into smithereens by the cannon-fire.

They weren't from the cannons of marine Buster Call ships. They were from a fleet of pirate ships that were anchored offshore.

"Walker seeing that flag before," grunted the fishman.

"T-that symbol on those ships..." stammered Mar as she, too recognized it. It was a smiley face, with little 'T's protruding from its circumference.

"What's that?" said Mar's father, the only person left in the dark.

"_**Flag is insignia of the New Heart Pirates," **_the Disinfector elaborated for the benefit of Mar's father. **_"As forecast, the armada of the Pirate Queen has returned."_**

* * *

**End of Chapter 11**


	12. You Gentlemen Can Wipe Your Smile Off

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, which sometimes indulges in a bit of Threepenny Opera for titling

* * *

**Chapter 12: You Gentlemen Can Wipe Your Smile Off**

* * *

No one was smiling on Sabaody anymore.

You really couldn't blame them. The archipelago town had been attacked by a fleet of pirate ships and now that the cannons had stopped firing, a swarm of savage pirates was running amok through the ruins of town.

While this was going on, our protagonist Mar and her party of prison escapees were still standing there stunned at the devastation that had befallen Sabaody.

Thankfully, sometimes the most apparently insane of a group is also the most sensible one. The Disinfector ended up being the one making the suggestion that they keep moving before the pirates decided to raid the marine base, which given the scale of this invasion, was very likely to happen.

"How do we get off this island?" Mar's dad panted as they ran.

"I have a ship! Well it's a ship that's giving me a ride but we need to get to where it is by kayak!"

"Can it hold four?"

"Dad, it's a two-man kayak—"

"Need three only," corrected Walker. "Walker is helping hunams escaping as promising. After reaching water Walker no following hunams."

"Fair enough, we understand," Mar's dad huffed as they hurried down the side of a giant root. "Glad to have you along as far as there anyway!"

"_**Escape party not at docks yet. Locksmith be on guard."**_

With this, the Disinfector handed Mar's dad the crowbar so that he was no longer unarmed. Mar noted no one handed _her_ a weapon, however.

* * *

They met the first pirate gang halfway to the docks.

Mar looked carefully at the advancing pirates and observed that none of them resembled the original Heart Pirates crew. In fact they seemed to lack the charm of the originals and looked pretty much like the standard bloodthirsty riffraff you would find at your local seedy pirate hangout.

"Sabaody is now the territory of the Pirate Queen!" the New Heart Pirate said. "Our queen has requested minimum bloodshed, so surrender and we won't kill you right now."

"Like hell!"

Walker growled in agreement.

"_**COUNTERFEITS! Termination in progress..."**_

Normally most stories will use this opportunity to establish that the protagonist is something of a badass. This narrator regrets to say that Mar did not get this treatment and was unfortunately left hiding behind a rock with her father (who was brandishing the crowbar) standing guard while the Disinfector and Walker did most of the fighting. Nothing particularly new here actually.

It was then when Mar noticed something rather odd.

The buildings on Sabaody had all been indiscriminately shot at. But in the distance, standing alone out of the rubble like a sinister gravestone, still stood the slave-shop.

"Why are they sparing that one?" wondered Mar.

"Mar, I don't think this is the time!" said her father anxiously. For a moment Mar felt a flash of irritation. It reminded her a bit too much of the time before they'd been transported here and her father had always been too busy and distracted to listen to her.

Of course, this time he had a good reason to be distracted because he was facing off against a pirate who had slipped past the Disinfector and Walker.

"Back off, you— (here Mar's dad used another word that Mar's mother would have been quite horrified to hear him use in front of his daughter)!"

The pirate did not look particularly impressed, and pulled out a flintlock pistol. Both of them froze.

Mar felt her stomach cramp with fear. It was futile to hope that the powder was wet and the gun would misfire as a result of improper maintenance, and what were the chances of the pirate missing at this range? No, it was against all possibilities to have it miss at point blank—

_**BLAM!**_

I know you'll get tired of my informing you that Mar screamed at something. So we'll omit that one for this round.

Anyway, when the sound of the shot had subsided, Mar and dad were still frozen, staring dumbly at the pirate.

The pirate just stared back and looked confused. "I... missed? But how could I miss? You were right in front of me—"

Mar's dad didn't bother to reply and smacked the gun out of his hand with the crowbar. Which was rather pointless really, since those things are single shot weapons and until it got reloaded it really wasn't going to be of much use or much threat to them anymore.

Mar's dad should have known this of course, but the heat of the moment you are liable to forget such insignificant details. Besides, we should give the poor man some credit, as he was taking the experience of being sucked into an alternate world and the abduction of his family rather phlegmatically, all things considered.

As for what happened to the pirate next, he suddenly fell dead with what looked like a scalpel in his neck.

"_**The Disinfector apologizes for oversight!" **_said the man in question as he ran the man through for good measure. But he was also 'hmm'-ing at the dead pirate as if he had seen something odd.

Walker just grunted as he tossed the last of the pirates into the distance. "Hurry hunams! We run now!"

* * *

"There's the kayak!"

And thankfully there it still was, just as she had left it.

"_**Kayak will not hold three persons. What is the distance to ship?"**_

"It took me about fifteen minutes to row from here."

"_**Amusing Subject and Locksmith take vessel. Retrieve ship. Disinfector will wait here."**_

"Are you sure? On your own?"

"_**Disinfector always fine on his own. Only in danger if in company of Locksmith and Amusing Subject."**_

Well that wasn't flattering even if it was true. As Mar and her father prepared to get in the kayak, Walker too began wading into the water.

"Walker go finding Gurnarde now. Walker thanking hunams for helping escaping. Good-Bye, little hunams."

"Good luck, Walker," said her dad. Mar noted that Walker and her dad did seem to be getting along rather well and in all honesty she was sorry to see Walker go.

And it was at this point when something horrible happened.

Walker had been waist deep in the water when he suddenly stumbled with a roar of pain. When he turned around you could see why: a white harpoon, all of five foot long and glistening with blood, was protruding through his torso.

"WALKER!"

The wounded fishman tried to take another step forward, and collapsed, looking exactly like a half-submerged rock.

"Mar, look out!"

A second harpoon, aimed at her, was calmly deflected by the Disinfector.

An angry scream tore through the air.

"MONKEY D. MADELYN!"

It was the marine captain. He was standing on a high root of one of the trees, looking down at them. Judging from his grimy condition he appeared to have already been in a fight. Probably with the New Heart Pirates.

"YOU EVIL WITCH!" He looked nothing like he had before, because his whole body was now sporting a forest of white spikes that protruded through his skin.

"How dare you summon your fleet and level my town? Well you have met your match! I have eaten the Bone-Bone fruit and I can alter any part of my skeletal structure. I can even turn them into weapons as you have seen!"

"He's a devil-fruit user!" Mar felt the need to point out, although the only response she got was a puzzled look from her Dad and Disinfector shrugging as if to say: The-Disinfector-knows-isn't-it-obvious?

"And I would have gotten you on the first go if that oversized fishman hadn't been in the way too, filthy beast!"

"You shot Walker because he was in the way? You have to be kidding me!"

"This is no joke. And I swear that I will never let you leave this place alive, Pirate Queen!"

"One: I didn't call those pirates and Two: they tried to kill us too!' Mar was thoroughly sick and tired of being called Madelyn by now and suddenly felt a stab of pity for Iron-Mask Duval. It was really such a pain being mistaken for an infamous pirate that she made a mental note to change her appearance if they ever got out of here. "So, shut it, and BELIEVE IT, you cheap Kimimaro knock-off!"

"_What did you call me_? My name isn't Kimimaro, it's Captain-"

"Well my name isn't Madelyn, so _stop calling me Madelyn!_"

"Enough of your lies! This ends now!"

In hindsight, he was correct about it ending then, because the root he was standing on suddenly exploded into a shower of splinters, sending the captain hurtling forward and into a stunned heap at their feet. If he hadn't moved a moment earlier, he would have probably _been_ some of the splinters themselves.

"_**Admirable shot! The Disinfector approves!"**_

The cannon shot hadn't come from the fleet of pirate ships. In fact, it had come from...

"_Sunny_!"

Sure enough, around the bay, the lion-headed ship was sailing on its own and determinedly making its way towards the dock they were on. Mar had never been so happy to see the ghost-ship in her life. Even as it approached them she could see the _Mini Merry II_ being launched out to ferry them back.

"No! It cannot be!" said the captain, who was shakily clawing his way back onto his feet. "The ship of the Pirate King?" Then he became aware of a shadow falling over him.

Now if this was a scene from the manga, we'd be getting one of those full-page panels where Mar's dad would be silhouetted with his face in shadow and the sun behind his back, so that his eyes would be just black hollow spaces. And it would have made him look quite scary, actually. Suppressed rage is a terrifying thing when finally let out.

''This—" Mar's dad snarled as he smacked the captain in the face with the crowbar. Everyone winced. "—is for Walker! And this—" (here he kicked captain off the docks and into the water) "—is for trying to murder my daughter in front of me! TWICE!"

"Wow, Dad... I don't think he can swim..." said Mar as the devil-fruit user sank out of sight.

"Really? Ah... don't tell your mother I did that, will you?"

"_**More pirates approaching. Must leave now."**_

The _Mini Merry_ had arrived. There was more than enough space for the three of them even if you discounted the kayak.

"But what about Walker? We can't just leave him like that!" Mar fervently hoped that whatever was said about fishmen being tough was true. Surely if Jinbe could survive a lava-punch to the chest, a single harpoon wouldn't be enough to finish someone like Walker?

"_**We bring Fishman along."**_ In fact, the Disinfector had somehow, when they weren't watching, already loaded the unmoving Walker, harpoon still embedded, into the _Mini Merry_. He himself was already in the sturdy little boat. "_**Now expediting departure."**_

Mar, who had enough of Sabaody, clambered into the kayak and nodded. "Let's go."

* * *

As the ship sailed away from the doomed archipelago with them on it, Mar whispered to the _Sunny_:

"Thank you for coming, _Sunny_. And yeah, I'll put Nami's stuff back, so please don't kill me. Also, I hope you don't mind all these new people on board. One of them is my dad by the way."

For a moment she could have sworn she heard the ship reply, in a happier voice than she had ever heard it use:

"_You're welcome."_

* * *

At high noon, the docks of Sabaody was filled with groups of miserable captives who had been chained together into a wailing, sobbing mess.

"You've looked through all of them?" A den-den mushi was saying to the commander of the New Heart Pirates. He in turn, had asked this same question earlier to the pirate who had been in charge of rounding up the civilians.

Just so we get this out of the way now, I should mention that no, it was not a talking polar bear, nor was it Dr. Trafalgar Law.

"Aye Captain! None of them were the persons you were after. However, we did manage to get some interesting info."

"And that was?'

"The owner of the slave shop you instructed we raid swears he had one of the outworlders you were describing in stock at one point. Actually he claimed it was one out of pair. The female was claimed by a Tenyruubito, Saint Magnus, I believe. The male was 'sold' to, get this— 'The Pirate Queen'."

"_Oh really?__"_ There was a dangerous tone to the owner of the voice at the other end of the den-den.

"What are your orders now Captain? Find this imposter of yours?"

"Did the slave-trader describe 'The Pirate Queen'?"

"He says she looked exactly like your wanted poster from years ago, when you were still starting out with the old Heart Pirates."

"So, it _IS_ her."

"Which brings me to our next report. One of our men came back reporting they had a run-in with some escaping townsfolk. A man and a girl were in the group. And what's more, they were seen escaping on a ship our man swears is the _Thousand Sunny._"

"The _Thousand Sunny_!"

There was a silence.

"Captain?"

"Do not worry about the female that was sold to the Saint Magnus," said the voice at last. "I will have that end taken care of. Just focus on finding the man and the girl that looks so much like me. They're both outworlders who are connected to the event that returned me from exile, and it is imperative that we get to them first."

"Yes Ma'am!"

"Oh, and Squall?"

"Under no circumstances are they to be killed. They are to be taken alive, and as much as possible, unspoiled and undamaged_."_

"As the our queen wishes."

With a click the den-den mushi stopped transmitting as the caller on the other end hung up.

"You heard her!" said 'Squall' to the rest of his men. "The man and the girl. _Find them_."

* * *

**End of Chapter 12**

_**A/N: **_And this is the part, where if this thing had sound effects, the screen would fade to black with the sounds of: DUN DUN DUNN!

_**The Iron Mask Duval comparison was brought to you by ijpowers92! Thanks for letting me use the idea. Also thanks to Paosheep, who noticed and pointed out an inconsistency regarding the effects of seastone on the Logic-Logic fruit last chapter. **_


	13. Questions and Answers

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, in which the author tries to hammer home the point that human characters should have to deal with human problems too.

**Chapter 13: Questions and Answers**

* * *

Mar was staring at the Disinfector with a wide-eyed look of absolute puzzlement.

To give the above sentence a bit of context, we first need to know that Mar was currently in the _Thousand Sunny's_ sickbay. She had dropped into check on Walker's condition. After their rescue by the _Sunny, _the giant fishman had been attended to by the Disinfector. Despite his rather dubious level of sanity, he _seemed_ to have enough expertise in the medical field to serve the purpose of a doctor.

At Mar's probing, the Disinfector had rather unemotionally pointed out that Walker had been pierced in several vital organs which made his chances of survival extremely shaky, but he would try to save their ally anyway. Just as a matter of principle.

And then he had followed that up with a seemingly inconsequential question.

"What do you mean by 'Why did I disarrange them'?" Mar repeated, lost.

The Disinfector gave Mar an exasperatingly patient look that somehow communicated beyond his tinted visor and hazard suit. It was a wonder how much body language the man could exude despite wearing a suit that covered everything, really.

_**"The medical instruments. Specifically, the scalpels. The Disinfector would like to query as to the cause of their disarrangement by Amusing Subject."**_

"Oh... that," Mar finally understood. "I was sleeping in the doctor's office before, and I didn't want to be in the same room as them." She decided against adding a "because the ship was being haunted by a ghost that was trying to kill me" explanation as things were weird enough as it was.

The Disinfector gave Mar a long hard look at this. "_**Subject has slept in that bed before incident at Sabaody?**_"

Mar nodded.

In response to this, the Disinfector wordlessly got up from Chopper's desk, whipped out a can of Ensuephalitis Cure, and began spraying the entire bed, and the patient that had been crammed onto it, with meticulous care. He then produced another few more cans (heaven knew where he stored them on his person) and began to give the entire office a very thorough disinfection.

Mar couldn't help but feel a little insulted at this.

Since the Disinfector wasn't forthcoming with more details about Walker's condition, she turned to leave.

"_**Before Amusing Subject leaves, The Disinfector has a task for subject**_."

"Yeah?"

"_**Kindly take charge of monitoring communication channels, as The Disinfector will be too busy to multitask effectively at the moment.**_"

A wristwatch-like object, rather familiar looking, was being held out to her. With a start Mar recognized the item as a sleeping black den-den mushi. It was uncanny how the wiretapping snail looked exactly like its illustrated version.

Her devil fruit being in good form today, she immediately made a few more connections with this revelation.

"So that's how you knew about the The Heart Pirates' impending attack on Sabaody! You were monitoring their communication channels!"

"_**Observant subject is observant. However, please take note of the point that those counterfeits are not The Heart Pirates. They label themselves The New Heart Pirates."**_

This was news to Mar. "What happened to the old Heart Pirates, then? How did you... who are you, really?"

There was a silence as the Disinfector considered his answer.

_**"The Disinfector. Is."**_

That was all he said, and his tone conveyed that he did not wish to go deeper into this subject.

Mar couldn't help noticing that his gloved hands were deftly rearranging the medical instruments that she had misplaced back into their original places as all this went on. Almost as though as he knew rather well how they really should have been kept.

A notion, ludicrous and fleeting, jumped into existence just then. It was impossible, and yet... a suspicion was beginning to form in Mar's mind that the Disinfector was not just some random doctor that had been wandering around Sabaody Archipelago without purpose.

But before she could pursue the matter further, she was being shooed out of the infirmary by the Disinfector, who insisted that Walker needed the privacy.

* * *

The appetizing smell of sizzling bacon greeted Mar as she found her father in the galley.

"Ah, Mar, there you are!" Her father turned to face her as she entered. Before she had gone to check on Walker she'd left him pottering all over the ship. Judging by the pair of re-welded glasses he now sported, he had evidently discovered Usopp's workshop. At the present, he was busy 'discovering' the galley.

Something struck her at the moment, though. "How did you manage to get the fridge open?"

"Your father does security systems, remember?"

"Yeah... but it's a combination lock... not a simple lockpick-able lock..."

She could tell from his ready answer that he had been _dying_ for her to ask that question.

"Ah... fun fact! Most digital combination locks actually ship with a secret master password that the supplier sets. We do that in case the customer forgets the combination because... you know, we'll be the ones the customers come crying to to get the lock reopened. I didn't want to disturb you so I just tried a few of the most common passwords and it worked."

"You're kidding me!" Mar reflected that Sanji, had he been there (and if he were still alive) would have been horrified to discover how insecure his fridge really was.

"No jokes, kiddo. You'd be surprised at how often that happens. Do you know how many administrator accounts leave their passwords as 'admin'? Anyway, sit down and eat. You look like you haven't had a square meal for a while."

That was an understatement. After days of eating hardtack, crackers and a can of tuna, her mouth was positively watering at the smells wafting about in the kitchen. How long had it been since she had had a real meal?

"I didn't know you could cook," Mar said as she appreciatively scoffed down the perfectly-cooked scrambled eggs and bacon.

"Hey, I'll have you know that your dad survived bachelorhood with flying colours. I make a pretty mean pancake too."

"Really? I love pancakes! How come you've never—"

She suddenly cut herself off, realizing the dangerous territory she was straying into.

"Never mind."

"How come I never made any for you?" her Dad finished the sentence for her. "That's what you wanted to say."

"I didn't mean it that way Dad."

"It's all right. I probably deserved that."

"Dad! Of course not! Dad, it's ok, I just..."

"What?"

"I just wish you spent more time home." It was the culmination of many miserable nights feeling emotionally alone that had prompted her to say that.

"I have to work, Mar. Food on the table and all that."

"Even late nights and weekends?"

"You'll understand when you get older."

There was a silence. But Mar was furious. How could a warm bonding moment with her father suddenly turn into the beginning of a fight like this?

"You want to know what I think, Dad?" she said hotly before she had thought it over. "I think you work so much because you don't like being home. Because you don't like being around us. Me and Mom."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" protested her father, slamming his spatula on the counter and suddenly looking almost as scary as he had while whacking the marine captain with the crowbar. For a moment Mar was suddenly terrified, but as suddenly as it had come, the look faded and he was her nice, if distant father again.

"At least... not all of it," he said slowly at last, turning away from her so she couldn't see his face. "It's just better for everyone concerned if I'm not home so much. I don't fight with your mother as much, you don't have to see us fighting—"

"I can hear you guys through the walls when you think I've gone to bed."

"Sorry. We should have thought of that, but sometimes it's just... look... Mar, let's just get this straight. Just because your mother and I have problems doesn't mean we don't love you."

It was like a well-rehearsed line out of a TV sitcom. It didn't do much to pacify her. "Sometimes it's really hard to tell, Dad. You guys don't show it much."

"We're not perfect, Mar. Not me. Not your mother."

"Do you still love her?" She almost couldn't believe her own audacious daring.

There was a pause before her father answered. "That's a silly question to ask. Of course." But his tone lacked conviction. The Mar who hadn't eaten the Logic-logic fruit would have pounced on the chance that lie offered her, just because she would have wanted to believe that her parents weren't having problems. But the Mar who was now the current user of the Logic-logic fruit, could not let the matter slide.

"Really? Are we really going to go find her then? Or were you just saying that back in the prison?"

It was his anger that convinced her this time. "Marie Denise Suesse! How can you even ask a question like that? Just because your mother and I are having problems doesn't mean I don't care! Of course we are getting her back! She's my wife and your mother!"

For a moment, there was no sound in the galley but the sound of sizzling bacon on cast-iron pan. Finally, Mar broke the silence.

"Dad? I'm sorry."

Instantly the tense atmosphere relaxed.

"It's all right. I'm sorry too," her father said slowly as he sat down next to her. "I haven't been as good a father as I should have been. But I promise, if-when we get out of this, things will change. And we'll find your mother and get her back, one way or another."

This of course was easy for Mar's father to say, since he was still unaware of the complexity of tangling with the Tenryuubito, but perhaps it was a sign of growing maturity that Mar tactfully kept her mouth shut. So instead she did the next most logical thing one could do in this situation: she hugged her father, which given that she was a sixteen-year old, self-conscious and rather rebellious, was a very big thing.

It was odd really. Back at home, she had rarely spoken more than ten words to her father in a single day. But now that they had been thrown into this hellish world together, she'd already hugged him twice in the span of a few hours. It was an alien experience, yet strangely pleasant.

"Hey Dad? This may sound selfish, but for all the horrible things that have happened in the past few days, I am glad about one thing. I like having you around. A lot. I didn't know my dad was so cool."

"I'm flattered, kiddo." And she knew he meant it.

They ate the rest of the meal in companionable silence. It wasn't until the end of it when another fact that she should have realized much earlier occurred to her.

"Dad, you used the bacon and eggs from the _fridge_?"

"Of course. I'm surprised you managed to get such fresh ingredients here, actually."

Mar froze, the last forkful of scramble eggs poised midair.

"What's wrong? Should I have not used them?" Her father was staring at her with a perplexed look on his face.

Inwardly, Mar's mind was racing. The food in the fridge had been rotten and had somehow mysteriously rejuvenated; she hadn't dared to even touch it throughout her stay on the _Sunny_. And yet now that she had let her guard down and actually eaten some of it, she wasn't sure that it wasn't going to kill her.

"Mar?"

She made up her mind, and firmly put the last of the eggs into her mouth and forced them down. It was too late to opt out of eating the mysterious food anyway, she might as well have the benefit of it and not alarm her father unnecessarily.

"I was just worried if we had enough rations to last us, that's all. But we should be ok," she forced a smile. "Mmm... that was good!" The Logic-logic fruit gave her hell of a headache for the stupidity of her lie, but it was worth it to see the relieved look on her father's face.

"You look tired. Maybe you should get some sleep. In fact, let's make that an order from your father. Go to bed this instant, young lady!" he joked in a mock scolding tone.

She gave him a tired smile and bolted out of the kitchen and into the girls' room, wondering if she was going to drop dead any moment from the potentially poisoned food.

"Hey _Sunny?_ I don't know how what it was that you did that made that food fresh again. But uh... you're still not trying to kill me, right?"

As she slipped into Nami's bed, she could have sworn that she had heard the ship's ghost snort.

* * *

Back in the kitchen of the Sunny, Mar's father was scooping the contents of the frying pan into a fresh plate.

"Is that you, Disinfector?" he asked, as a shadow fell from the doorway. "Just in time! I figure you could use a bite—"

Naturally, it was at this point when he became aware that the person who had entered the galley was not the Disinfector, because the Disinfector, with his bulky hazard suit, would have thrown a much larger shadow than that.

Neither was it Mar. Or Walker.

"Finally, I have tracked you down." The voice was female, forceful, commanding, and left no doubt that its owner would carry through with whatever it said. "If you would like to continue breathing, miscreant, then _do not move an inch_."

* * *

**End of Chapter 13**


	14. The First of the Fourth

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, in which the author is having fun playing with manifold meanings to this chapter title.

**Chapter 14: The First of the Fourth**

* * *

Mar was staring at the Disinfector with a wide-eyed look of absolute puzzlement.

To give the above sentence a bit of context, this narrator first needs to reassure you that no, your eyes are not playing tricks on you and the author has not reposted the last chapter by mistake.

With that important information out of the way, let's go back to the stated scenario:

Mar was staring at the Disinfector with a wide-eyed look of absolute puzzlement.

"What happened to the old Heart Pirates? More specifically, what happened to Trafalgar Law? It had something to do with Monkey D. Madelyn the pirate queen, didn't it? That much I can guess."

"Do not speak of she-who-must-not-be-named!" The Disinfector said in alarm. "If Observant Subject does, there will be—"

There was an explosion of rainbow sparkles in the doctor's office.

"—too late." finished the doctor.

The woman who had suddenly appeared on the _Sunny_ in the burst of shimmering light was beautiful, yet strangely familiar.

"I, Monkey D. Madelyn, the Pirate Queen and the most beautiful woman in the five seas, have come to claim what is mine!"

With a thrill of horror, Mar realized the endless repetitions of how much she looked like the pirate queen were not exaggerations. That woman looked quite like her own reflection in the mirror, but impossibly glammed-up and beautified.

"Y-you..."

"I am your humble servant, my beautiful lady!"

"_DISINFECTOR_?"

But instead of the hazard-suited Mad Disinfector, a different man now sat in the doctor's chair. 'The Surgeon of Death' Trafalgar Law, in his trademark yellow and denim outfit was now perched on the seat, looking pretty much unlike any canon depiction of him— that is, not gazing wonderingly at a beautiful woman of choice with lovelight in his eyes, and smiling extremely unnaturally. One would have supposed this was something very unlikely to happen anyway, not when even Boa Hancock herself didn't have that effect on him.

"My dear Madelyn, you are utterly wonderful. My patient is dead, and I need someone to comfort me over my failure."

"Walker's dead?"

"Pierced lung, pierced heart, massive blood loss. Of course he's dead. Use your logic, Logic-Logic fruit user."

"NO! No! It can't be!" Mar could feel her stomach cramp in anger (or indigestion).

"Ignore her, my love. Let me welcome you back..."

"Ah my dear Doctor Trafalgar, how much I have missed you..."

Mar suddenly sympathized with Robin on how she preferred the old Trafalgar Law. Especially as the two engaged in some very public displays of affection.

"_What's wrong with you_?" Not that she knew the man that well, but even she knew the real Trafalgar Law would never have debased himself like a lovesick puppy.

"Hush now. Children should be quiet," said Madelyn maddeningly between kisses, as if she had the right to.

"I am NOT a child!" Mar felt ill and angry and the feeling was choking her.

"Oh, then you wouldn't care to know what happened to your mother?"

That got her attention.

"You know where my mother is? Where is she?"

"Mar..." said the Pirate Queen, her voice dropping several octaves as she did so. "I... am your Mother!"

Despite the cliche-ness of the line, Mar's reaction was pretty much as expected.

"NOOOooo!" The cry was melodramatic and drawn out, but no less genuine for its horror.

It was that moment Mar woke up to find herself still in Nami's bed, and the pillows and blankets in a messy pile on the floor.

"... April..."

"...FOOLS!..."

It took Mar several moments to orientate herself. She checked her watch. She had been asleep for barely fifteen minutes.

For a moment she had wondered if some malignant entity had been toying around with her, but as it turned out, it had just been a nightmare. None of those bizarre occurences had been true. It had been a bad dream born of going to bed with burning questions and indigestion. Well, supposed indigestion. But she was still alive, so that meant the food couldn't have been that poisoned after all.

"...can't you do anything right...?" a distinctly male voice was screaming, but the sound was somehow muted. Where _was_ that voice coming from?

She soon discovered the source: the black den-den mushi that the Disinfector had given her. Sometime during her repose it had woken up and was relaying what sounded like a shouted match between two marine officers.

"...those bastards leveled Sabaody ... get away scot-free?"

"I told you, Admiral Im... we weren't scheduled ... reinforcements until April … no way … could have come to their aid!"

"no excuse ... Captain Marrow … because of that ... killed ..."

Despite the random arrangement of those words, Mar could figure out most of the conversation. The marines were all in a panic over Sabaody. She supposed that was natural. But it seemed that they were happy to share the distress, if the next line was anything to judge by:

"... _Thousand Sunny ..."_

"You are sure?"

" … no mistake..."

Mar sat up in horror. They had been spotted leaving the scene... from now on every marine ship in the vicinity would be keeping an eye out for the _Sunny._ With only the Disinfector capable of fending off any potential attackers, (well if you didn't count _Sunny_ itself) they were going to be in dire straits.

"Need to warn the others!" she said out loud (a habit she had picked up on the days she had spent alone on the _Sunny_). "We need to find somewhere to lie low!"

"_Too late... trouble!"_

"What do you mean "trouble", _Sunny_?"

"_Tried to stop her, but she was too fast! She dodged the boom."_

"Huh?"

"_Hurry!"_

The urgency the ship's ghost's voice was enough to convince Mar. Before she had even considered how exactly she would be able to help and what exactly she _could_ do, she had already run out of the girls' room and onto the deck. Finding the deck empty, she ran to find her father, and that was when she discovered the situation in the galley of the _Thousand Sunny._

The galley was a mess. What was left of her father's bacon and eggs were scattered all over the floor and the table itself was up-ended. The spilling and up-ending appeared to have been done by an armed intruder who was in the middle of thrashing the rest of the gallery while in the middle of an angry diatribe.

Mar cautiously peeked through the open doorway to get a better look. The intruder wasn't the person she had been secretly fearing it was: the manifestation of her nightmare. In fact, it wasn't even human.

Not the bottom part of her at least. Sure, what could be seen of her top half that was not hidden beneath that shell-motif armor and tattered red cloak could be considered human (and rather pretty if it didn't look so fierce), but it was her lower half that caught Mar's eye. It was the colour of coral sand, with brilliant blue speckling and dark barrings. Each of her feet were scaled and ended in strange spiky tail-fin halves. On the sides of her hips were strange, wing-like things of the same colour as the rest of her lower body, which made her look like she was wearing a skirt that split in half in the middle.

But before Mar could even do anything, the intruder had detected her presence, and had whirled around with what looked like a trident in her hand.

"Mar, watch out!" Her father's warning didn't come a moment too soon, and she managed to dive out of the way before the trident came flying towards her and through where she had been standing a moment ago.

"W-who... WHAT are you? What do you want!" Mar managed yell, her heart pounding at how close she had come to dying.

"Who am I?" the creature echoed coldly. "Give me your name, wench, and I shall burden you with the terror that mine inspires."

"My name is Marie Denise Suesse." Even to Mar's ears that sounded lame.

"I am revered as the Sand-Dragon Gurnarde, and I have come for my brethren!"

"Brethren?" Mar had a nagging feeling she had heard that name before, but she couldn't quite place it.

"Do not pretend you do not know— I speak of my brother! He has been missing for days, and now that I have found him in the hands of you devious landlubbers, there will be no mercy! Prepare to die!"

"I don't understand!"

"You won't need to! I shall slay every one of you landcrawlers upon this vessel, then I will claim back the freedom of my flesh-and-blood! And you're first!"

"Don't you touch my daughter, you (here Mar's dad used a word that this narrator has had to opt out of repeating again)!"

Mar could hear the footsteps approaching. She was a panic. How could she even do anything? How could she keep her dad from doing something that would get him killed? It was beyond logic to hope that someone could suddenly appear and save the day.

So it was with a feeling of surreality that Mar saw the Disinfector jump onto the scene.

"Dis-"

"_**Observant Subject and Locksmith take cover! Let the Disinfector handle the mermaid!**_"

"Mermaid?"

Mar, who had not read that far into the manga yet, hadn't recognized the mermaid (yes it is obviously a mermaid) for what she was since she looked so different from the Camie the mermaid. True, there was Kokoro, but most people tend to forget her due to her advanced age and lack of attractiveness.

"Handle me? I highly doubt your capability of doing so!" the mermaid scorned.

Three knives flew threw the air, only to be coolly deflected by the warrior-mermaid.

"You need to try better than that, fumble-foot!"

The Disinfector had been using the projectile attack to buy him time so he could close the distance with his autopsy knife. But before the two could engage, the low rumbling voice of Walker interrupted this confrontation.

"Gurnarde..."

All activity on deck skidded to a stop.

"Walker... you're all right!" Mar was relieved to see the fish-man, now looking like a bandaged rock, back on his feet.

"Walker! You have been injured by the humans! This is unforgivable!" the mermaid said, ignoring the humans momentarily.

Both Mar's father and the Disinfector tensed at this. But Walker's next words put everything right.

"Gurnarde... Little hunams not being enemies. Helping Walker escaping and saving Walker life."

"Oh... I see. That changes everything then. Fair allies, I thank you for the aid you have extended to my brother." The mermaid was acting as though she hadn't declared that she wanted all of them dead less than a minute ago.

Mar suddenly recalled the name as it had been spoken by the voice she had first heard it in. "Wait... you said you were going to find a Gurnarde... is that _this_ Gurnarde?"

Being spoiled by the narrator as is the right of the audience, this is the point where we would be getting an Odabox with the following information:

"Sand-Dragon" Gurnarde,

Flying Gurnard Mermaid (Split tail),

Knight of the Neptune Army

"Yes," said Walker.

Mar promptly wondered if her devil-fruit had come with the side effect of attracting the weirdest characters in one of the weirdest universes known.

* * *

**End of Chapter 14**

* * *

_**While I'm waiting for my beta and finishing off the next chapter of TABCF, enjoy, and happy April Fools!**_


	15. Inexplicable Signs

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, in which the author would like to mention may require knowledge of the Fishman Island arc for optimal understanding.

**Chapter 15: Inexplicable Signs**

* * *

"Yes, I am a mermaid. My tail and fins are just a little unusual, that's all." In any other situation in your typical One Piece fanfic featuring a mermaid, the mermaid in question probably would have been saying this after being rescued by the straw-hats, either from a sea-king, pirates or slave traders. Of course we already know in this case, the mermaid in question had indiscriminate slaughter on her mind in her introduction, and definitely was in no need of rescue. In fact, one might have said the rescuing was really required the other way round.

After everyone had stopped trying to kill each other, the occupants of the _Thousand Sunny_ moved on to sitting around the kitchen table, in a manner that suggested peace talks. It was not too far from the truth. It certainly had the same amount of phoney-ness as your typical peace talk conference. Even if Walker had diffused the situation and Gurnarde was trying to be friendly, one could tell there was a certain unease between the two sea-dwellers and the two humans + whatever The Disinfector was.

"Oh you might want to be careful, the end-spikes on those fins are sharp. They're not venomous like Walker's but they do hurt."

There was no fear of that, no one was sitting near the mermaid.

"So your name is Mar, and you are the captain of this ship?" Gurnarde continued determinedly, as if any moment of silence was to be considered taboo.

"Well actually, I'm not really the cap—" Mar began, not particularly keen on being slapped with the responsibility considering the danger that came with it.

**"—Yes, Captain Mar is."**

Everyone who wasn't Gurnarde turned to look at the Disinfector in astonishment. With good reason you see, as this would be the first time our mad doctor had called Mar by anything other than [Insert adjective here] subject.

"What are you talking about?" Mar hissed to the pseudo-doctor. "I'm not the captain. I mean the _Sunny_ sort of belongs to itself and-"

In response, she was given a dig with the Disinfector's hazard-suited elbow that obviously meant: 'Subject play along for now.'

While the Disinfector was considered mad, she had learnt to respect that whatever he did, he tended to have a good reason for doing so, so she subsided in her protests, and nodded while giving off a kind of strangled grin.

"I see, very nice to meet you, Captain. I am most grateful to you for the rescue of my brother Walker. I apologize for our earlier... misunderstanding."

Mar's dad didn't seem to have warmed up to her apology much. It is also understandable, as less than an hour ago, Gurnarde had been threatening the life of him and his daughter. As a certain marine captain had learned the hard way, this was a sure-fire way to make it up to the top of the the man's shit-list. Of course, as that said captain was now probably providing fertilization to the mangrove roots of Sabaody, it is doubtful that he would be able to comment on how inadvisable it was to underestimate an angry security consultant.

The mermaid however, seemed blithely unaware of Mar's father's glowering countenance.

"You must introduce me to your charming crew," Gurnarde politely declined the plate of biscuits that was being shared around. "Very kind of you to offer us those comestibles, but no thank you, we do not accept food from humans, do we, Walker?"

Walker gave an embarrassed sort of grunt at this. He already had a biscuit halfway to his mouth. "Gurnarde is being very safe-thinking?"

_You mean you don't trust us an inch._ Mar could read the expression on her dad's face. The Disinfector didn't say anything, but even with the hazard-suit she could tell he was keeping a careful eye on the mermaid as well.

"Better to be safe than sorry. I hope your cook won't mind. What do you call him again?"

Of course, Mar's dad did mind, but he also introduced himself. "It's Garreth. Garreth Stuart Suesse. You can call me Garreth, Stuart, or Mr. Suesse, but on no account are the names to be shortened. So not 'Gary', not 'Stu', and definitely not both of them shortened together."

"You humans are so particular about your names," commented Gurnarde, bemused.

"You would be too if you were cursed with parents with absolutely no common sense in choosing names," Mar almost thought she heard her father mutter.

This narrator would like to add it is absolutely up to the reader to decide on whether as a father who named his daughter Marie Denise Suesse, Mr. Suesse was being hypocritical or not.

"And this is the Disinfector," Mar interrupted hurriedly before anyone could say anything that would lead to a fight.

**"The Disinfector has heard of you, Sand-Dragon,"** the Disinfector said cautiously.

"Likewise," Gurnarde suddenly looked interested. When she didn't look about to murder someone, she could look quite beautiful, albeit in a savage, chiseled kind of way. She was a mermaid after all. "So you are THE Disinfector, the one who killed that 444 million bounty-head?"

"**Bounty-head was infected with Ensuephalitis. Bounty claim was accidental."**

"Such modesty," Gurnarde drummed her fingers on the table. "That was the highest bounty kill in the record, was that not? That is, until you yourself got a bounty put on your head."

"You're a bounty-hunter?" Mar said to Gurnarde in realization.

"I must admit, once I was naïve enough to believe in the ideals of our Queen Otohime. I had thought that by devoting my life to being a bounty-warrior and hunting down pirates and slavers I would be able to serve the Neptune Army's cause and purge the evil ones from the human race, leaving only the good. But I have since learnt that when it comes to humans, the rot comes from the top," she smiled, revealing a row of sharp and pointed teeth. The effect was startling- it made her look extremely predatory. "So I hunt a different prey nowadays."

Mar, despite her knowledge of One Piece, had no idea who this Queen Otohime was, but she did notice the atmosphere had turned even more tense at this. For an awkward minute or so, there was only silence as everyone simply stared at each other, waiting for the right words to come along.

Instead of the right words, a flying fish filled that void instead. To be specific, it leapt out of the water, sailed past the mermaid and fishman, over the deck, and back into the water on the other side of the ship.

The effect it had on the two non-humans was electric. Walker immediately extended his spine-spikes and looked alert while Gurnarde's wing-like fins began to unfurl, as if anticipating trouble.

"It's been a pleasurable discourse, but I'm afraid Walker and I must take our leave," Gurnarde said hastily, no longer interested in the Disinfector.

The Disinfector however, seemed to understand the significance of the flying fish, and sounded displeased about it. **"It would seem your exploits make you a dangerous visitor for our captain to host, Sand-Dragon."**

Gurnarde laughed at this. "Well said! I apologize for the trouble... Thank you for everything, Captain Mar. I would watch the horizon to your west. Come, Walker!"

Walker looked sorry to go, but he managed a little wave. "Goodbye little hunams! Walker go with Gurnarde now."

Without further ceremony, both fishman and mermaid disappeared over the side of the ship.

As soon as the two had gone, the Disinfector jumped to his feet.

"**We must move quickly. We do not have the advantage of being able to hide in the depths like they do."**

"Why did you do that? You pretty much just told them to go away!" Mar was a little upset at losing Walker so abruptly.

"I don't mind Walker, but that woman... good riddance." Mar's dad grumbled.

"**As helpful as fishman is, his companion is trouble. Captain Mar may be unaware, but the sand-dragon is a serial killer. A very notorious one who gained her fame from successfully murdering several Tenryuubito. A murderous psychopath like her will not be allowed to roam free** (and the Disinfector said this without a trace of irony). **Wherever she is spotted, an admiral ship will be sure to follow.****"**

"A marine admiral?" Mar paled, suddenly remembering the black den-den mushi. "Disinfector, that reminds me... the _Sunny_... we were spotted in Sabaody! The marines will be looking out for us now! If they come this way and see us..."

The Disinfector gave her a long hard look that pretty much said why-did-you-not-tell-me-this-earlier and nodded.

**"By what the mermaid indicated, she was being pursued and they will come from the west."**

"How do we know what dragon-woman said about the west is true?" Mar's dad asked.

"**Is best to listen. Mermaids can speak to fish and know things we don't."**

As if in response, the ship suddenly changed course, away from the setting sun.

"Wow, how does the auto-pilot on this thing work?" Mar's dad asked in astonishment. "Pretty impressive."

"Actually dad, it's controlled by a ghost."

In response to the odd looks she got from this, Mar surrendered and sighed. "Hey _Sunny_," she said to the ship, "Do you want to explain this to them or shall I?"

* * *

"You're saying this ship has a ghost?"

"It's a Klauter-ba-something."

**"The Disinfector believes Subject is referring to a klabautermann."**

"That's it! I couldn't remember that word for the life of me and it was driving me mad!"

"And it struck a deal with you because it wants to find out what happened to its former crew?" Mar's dad was repeating slowly. "This ghost ship?"

"Yes."

There was a pause as her poor father tried to take it all in. "Mar, are you sure you're okay? I know we've been through a lot the last few days, but seeing ghosts..."

On cue, she felt a cold presence. And Mar knew, from the stunned looks on her father's face, and the Disinfector's sudden change in stance, that the _Sunny_ had made itself visible to the two of them.

"...would mean I'm crazy as well," Mar's dad finished, his face turning pale. "I'm really seeing that thing standing there, aren't I?"

"I know it sounds crazy Dad, but yeah, we all are. It's the _Sunny._ The only reason we're on this ship because it's letting us stay here."

"Right." Her father was still staring at the Sunny's klabautermann.

There was a pause.

"Mar... I've been meaning to ask you this. But how do you seem to know everything that's going on? Even back at that slave-island... It's like you've been here before."

Mar flushed. "You know those mangas- er, comics I always read? Well, the world we're in now kinda belongs to one of them."

Her father's voice was sounding more and more distant. "So you're saying... everything's that's happened so far... is because we've been sucked into some sort of fantasy world based on one of your comic books?"

"Something like that."

Mar would soon realize in hindsight, that this was totally the wrong approach to take. Up to the present point her father's response to every bizarre thing that had happened to them had been quite composed. But there is more to this than it seems. If Mar had a better understanding of psychology, she would have noticed that her father hadn't sat still for a moment. In fact, she might also have noticed that he'd been keeping himself busy by fixing everything on board his DIY skills could do anything to. Mar had assumed it had been part of his workaholic personality, but she was soon to learn that it wasn't what it seemed.

You see, Mar's dad had been focusing on their most immediate problems and solving them, but it wasn't solely out of a desire to be useful. It was actually his coping mechanism.

But now that Mar had neatly summarized everything that had happened to them in rather unmistakable terms, the effect it had on her father, who already had a tenuous hold on reality, was devastating. He suddenly sat down on the kitchen floor. and started laughing uncontrollably, as if it was the funniest thing he had ever heard. But when one minute had passed, and he was still laughing, Mar became scared.

"Dad? DAD!" But there was no recognizable response on her father, just more bewildered laughing. Desperate, Mar turned to the Disinfector. "What's wrong with my dad?"

"**Acute stress disorder,"** the Disinfector diagnosed calmly, walking back towards the doctor's office.

"Acute... Stress..."

"**Subject broke the Locksmith's mind,"** the Disinfector dumbed-down for her benefit. **"Some tranquilizer will help. But perhaps it will be best not to bring up that subject again, Captain."**

So the lesson we learnt today, should the gentle-reader ever get sucked into a fictional world, is that some people can accept odd things like mermaids and fishmen and weird men who can sprout bones from their skins. However, there is a limit to everything, and telling a very down-to-earth person that they are living in a japanese manga world is pushing it.

* * *

The warm feeling of security that Mar had been feeling ever since she had gotten her father back crumbled away. For the first time in her young life, she was feeling the terrible burden not being able to rely on an adult who was present and having to act like one in his stead.

And she didn't like it one bit.

"So my dad will be all right?"

**"Acute stress disorder is not incurable. Once locksmith reconciles self to reality of the situation, he should return to normal. A few days is the normal recovery period.** **"**

"Are you sure about this?"

**"You doubt The Disinfector's prognosis?"**

"Well, I thought you told me Walker wasn't likely to make it but he seemed fine just now."

**"The Disinfector's prognosis was not incorrect. However, this is an irregularity the Disinfector does not understand. Fishman should have expired an hour ago, but spontaneously recovered from death-state without Disinfector's intervention."**

"What do you mean?"

**"Fishman Walker's injuries were fatal. Fishman did not survive. The Disinfector was prepared to announce this development to subject Mar when Fishman suddenly regained consciousness and the wounds mysteriously healed."**

A cold prickly feeling was rising up Mar's spine at the Disinfector's chilling implication.

"_**This was also why the Disinfector was no longer keen to have Fishman Walker on board."**_

"T- this isn't funny, Disinfector."

"**The Disinfector does not indulge in humour,"** the doctor's voice was serious, and for the briefest of moments, had lost its unemotional, robotic edge.

"**The Fishman was dead, and but something unnatural on this ship brought him back to life."**

* * *

**End of Chapter 15**

* * *

**Let's not forget that this fic is a mystery/horror story.**

_**A/N: Thanks for everyone's reviews and comments! As you all who follow my other words will know, I've had a very productive time of it this month, and writing 3 fics concurrently is no mean feat. All that said, June has been a good month! Enjoy~!**_


	16. The Devil In The Sand Dragon's Wake

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, with a harsh dose of wake-up call and a side order of flat whats. (and probably couldn't get any more tropey-ier)

**Chapter 16: The Devil In The Sand-Dragon's Wake**

* * *

When someone talks about the dead returning to life, most people will tend to have impressions of the undead rampaging in their heads. Depending on their exposure to modern media, most people probably won't think of the cute _Thriller Bark_ kind of zombies first. It's more likely to be something closer to _28 Days Later_ and _I Am Legend_ camp. The nightmare-inducing kind.

Mar was no exception.

"A-are you saying Walker is a zombie? How is this even possible?"

In fact, we should note that this abnormality was rather reminiscent of her earlier days when she was on the haunted Sunny, and inexplicable things kept happening around her.

_**"The Disinfector too would like to know. There have been other inexplicable supernatural occurrences, have there not?"**_

Which was true. In Mar's mind there was the memory of the fridge's mysteriously rejuvenating food. She was sure now that those two occurrences, and Walker returning from the dead, were related. The food thing was creepy enough, but now that the _Sunny_ had shown the power to raise the dead, it was seriously freaking Mar out.

"Wh-what are you getting at?"

_**"Subject has not been entirely open to The Disinfector. What kind of influence does subject have?"**_

This was certainly another shock to Mar, and naturally she did wonder why the world the Disinfector was demanding answers from her as if she knew what was going on. The ridiculousness of it made Mar scared and angry, and scared people generally go on the attack to re-instill some feeling of security. So naturally Mar took her fear and anger out (rather unwisely) on the only person in close proximity.

"Me? _I've_ not been open to you? _You_ haven't been straight to the rest of us either! I know you know more about what's going on than you let on. I've seen the way you move around the sick-bay, no... this whole ship! You've been here, on the _Thousand Sunny_ before, haven't you? You weren't even surprised to know that it had a klabautermann!"

_**"The Disinfector does not wish to discuss this subject."**_

"Well, you just made me the goddamn captain of this ship, so we're discussing this subject now! That's an order! You know something about what happened to the Straw-Hats and the Heart Pirates, don't you? Who _are_ you?"

There really shouldn't have been a battle of wills between them. Mar was a powerless teenage girl and the Disinfector was an extremely powerful and frightening individual who had no reason to be helping her, and who could kill her in an instant. But for some reason, he didn't seem keen on that recourse when it came to her.

"You made me captain," she reminded him. "I don't want to be, but I made the _Sunny_ a promise I'd find out what happened twenty years ago and I intend to keep it."

"_**The Disinfector refuses. Subject is better off not knowing."**_

"Give me one good reason why."

The Disinfector only remained obstinately silent.

Naturally, it was at this point when the sound of a cannonball just missing the ship and exploding dissolved the tension and replaced it with absolute panic instead.

* * *

As both Mar and the Disinfector bolted for the bridge, Mar felt sick to the pit of her stomach. What with her father's breakdown and her distracting The Disinfector, they'd forgotten about the Sand-Dragon's warning about pursuers from the west. But to think the Marines had found them so soon!

The Disinfector's reaction was predictable. He ran for the door, his blades out and ready.

What he did next was not. He suddenly stopped, then turned around to face Mar.

**"_Captain Mar. This time I will defend this ship. But let's just get this clear- "_**

A chill swept up Mar's spine as she realised that she had dangerously overstepped her bounds earlier. Once again his voice had lost its robotic edge, and she did not miss the fact that for the first time ever, The Disinfector had referred to himself as "I".

"_**-if you push this issue again, I WILL leave you and your father at the mercy of this ocean, whatever my stakes in this are."**_

Terrified by the sudden intensity of his threat, Mar did the only thing she could- she said nothing and nodded.

Fortunately for Mar, this seemed to be enough. The terrifying glimpse of whoever the Disinfector really was disappeared, and the eccentric, impersonal and somewhat amiable individual that Mar had come to be reliant on, returned.

_**"The Disinfector is glad we have come to an understanding. Captain Mar, stay below deck and prepare the coup de burst. We will most likely need it soon."**_

And with that the Disinfector left to repel the attack, leaving Mar shaken and never so glad to hear someone go back to referring himself in the third person again.

She was also left acutely aware that the Disinfector's allegiance and continued benevolence was something that could not, and should not, be taken for granted. Sure, over the course of the last few days, familiarity with the strange man had somewhat tempered Mar's fear of him from when she had first met him. Which sounds like a foolish thing if the reader remembers the cold and business-like way he had killed those other people in Sabaody, but I assure you it happens in real life. People tend to overlook facts and flaws when they know the person in question is on their side.

But now that she had been given a wake-up call, Mar couldn't help wonder what the Disinfector's stakes were, and why he was even sticking with them at all.

* * *

Franky's engine room was cold and dank after years of neglect. It also gave Mar the feeling that she was somewhere she wasn't supposed to be. She fervently wished that her father wasn't sedated and in the medical bay, all this machinery stuff would have been right up his alley.

"Sunny! We need to get the Coup De Burst working! How do I do that?" she turned to the ship for help as outside, the sounds of cannon-fire and explosions rocked the vessel.

"_Won't work. No cola." _was the ghost-ship's reply.

"That just means I need to fill in barrels of cola into something here, right? Where's the cola?"

"_Storage. It's flat."_

Thinking it was strange that the storage area should be described as 'flat', Mar rushed to fuel the escape mechanism. And it was then when she realised that the _Sunny_ hadn't been talking about flat storage areas. It had been talking about the cola.

It made perfect sense, unfortunately. Cola that had been left sitting for decades would eventually lose its gassy nature and go flat. Which meant that there would be no usable fuel for the Coup De Burst and no burst of propulsion to get them away from the marines.

In short, she was going have to go up and tell the Disinfector that they were screwed.

The ship suddenly shuddered and slowed.

"Sunny?"

"_I'm hit. The mast has been damaged."_

A damaged mast meant the ship was not going to be able to outrun the marine ships without the Coup De Burst. For a moment, Mar froze in a panic, and then began trying one barrel after another, even though she knew it was useless. There had to be some cola left that was still good, surely? _Surely? _Once again her stomach churned as she was overcome with desperation. She knew she wasn't anything more than a puppet-captain for the _Sunny_ and not much was expected from her, but she couldn't go up to the deck and tell the Disinfector that she'd failed. She just _couldn't_.

"Sunny, you can rejuvenate food, damnit!" she yelled, "Can't you do the same to the cola?"

"_It wasn't me."_

"It wasn't you? Then who...?"

But the ship did not answer.

Another explosion rocked the ship. Mar closed her eyes, clenched her trembling hands, and was on the verge of resigning herself to defeat. She was sick to her stomach, so much that it hurt. They were all going to die. They were all going to die because that stupid non-rejuvenating cola and whatever magic that had done the impossible was refusing to work now.

Mar was brought out of her funk by the sound of machinery suddenly activating.

"_It's ready!"_

"Wh-what?"

"_Coup de Burst. Hurry!"_

"But you said-"

"_The cola you filled in is not flat."_

"What." Mar felt a sudden sense of surreality. It was almost like a dream coming true. A dream too good to be true.

But now was not the time to wonder about such convenient _deus ex machina_. Mission accomplished, Mar turned and ran for the deck to tell the Disinfector that they were ready to escape.

* * *

When Mar emerged from the hold, she barely recognised the deck. In the middle of the grass-turned-mud deck, was a crater. The main mast had been damaged and the main sail was ripped into two. But other than that, the ship seemed mostly intact. Which could not be said for the wreckages of the two marine vessels on either side of them- they had been reduced to chunks of wreckage floating about in the waves.

At the front of the boat, facing off with the last marine ship, was the Disinfector. For a moment Mar wondered how he had managed to sink two ships on his own without any visible weapons other than his knives. In any case, Mar mentally made a note to never get on the Disinfector's wrong side again.

"Disinfector, the Coup De Burst is ready!"

_**"We cannot use it now. It is too late," **_the hazard-suited man replied tersely.

"What do you mean? The Sunny is just waiting for our word to-"

_**"Sunken ships were merely harrier ships. Their job was to slow us down for the main show."**_ The Disinfector shook his head at the damaged _Sunny._ _**"Despite the Disinfector's efforts, they succeeded. We are in range of his powers now, he will not let us escape so easily."**_

"He?"

The Disinfector pointed to the marine flagship bearing down on the _Thousand Sunny._ On its prow stood a slight figure in a very snappy black suit and the Pimp Marine Coat. His head of silvery white hair and fearless countenance was clearly visible across the water as he coolly stared at them.

_**"The marine admiral."**_

"We're in trouble."

This was a vast understatement. Mar remembered what she knew of marine admirals. Even if this one was not one of the three that she had known about, she had no doubt he would prove to be as dangerous as any from the trio of Akainu, Aokiji and Kizaru.

What she didn't know was, by just how much.

_**"Very much so. It is Admiral Imba."**_

No doubt some of the readers would have assumed, thanks to the description of "silvery white hair", that this marine admiral was actually Admiral Smoker. But in this case I have to sink that hope and say that it wasn't.

It might interest the reader to know however, that this painfully young admiral (he was about twenty or so but looked about fifteen) was actually the alleged son of the "White Hunter" Smoker and "Black-Cage" Hina, who had both been killed during the war of Loguetown. Because of this, he now spent his days relentlessly searching the oceans, hunting down the pirates whom he felt had been responsible for his parent's deaths. Never mind the fact that the reason both had died was because a malfunctioning experimental propulsion engine had exploded and accidentally sunk the marine vessel they were on. He was a marine through and through, which meant that everything bad that had ever happened was to be blamed on pirates.

To Mar however, he did not look particularly threatening, and in fact he reminded her of another character from another manga. Yes, that one that one of her fellow Animanga Club members in school liked to read. Mar had never gotten into that particular series herself, but she had heard of it being described as a manga "where a bunch of fashion models dress up in black kimonos and run around with huge swords". Jiniko (real name Jeanie) didn't seem to be reading it for story value though. In fact Mar was secretly convinced that Jiniko read it mostly for the eye-candy, the most prominent of whom was a pretty white-haired boy whom Admiral Imba looked like a twin of.

"This must be my lucky day... I set out to find a little mermaid and her pet, and instead I end up with the notorious Disinfector and the Pirate Queen," Admiral Imba said, and his voice carried across the water.

Naturally, Mar started with her customary protest. "For the last time, I am not the Pirate Q-"

_**"Is pointless, Captain."**_ the Disinfector interrupted.

At that moment Mar felt a familiar wave of frustration rush over her. Yes, what the Disinfector said was true but it could not be denied that the whole mistaken identity thing was really getting a bit old.

"Surrender, or die. I can sense that the both of you are devil-fruit users, but I should warn you, I am Admiral Lance D. Imba, the most powerful marine in the World Government! Even the combined might of two normal devil-fruit users such as yourselves will not be a match for my devil-fruit!"

It came as something of a shock to Mar to realise that the Disinfector was also a devil-fruit user. In hindsight, she should have figured it out sooner, after all, how else could he have single-handedly sunk two ships without any visible tools? Still, she had never witnessed his powers in use, and she couldn't help wondering what kind of powers they were.

They had to be at least stronger than hers though. The power of being logical wasn't pulling its weight much at the moment. Especially against someone who didn't appear to even need to be modest about his fruit.

"Is that marine admiral for real...?"

It should be a mark of how serious the situation was when the Disinfector replied with gravity,_** "Yes. Admiral Imba is worst-case scenario we could have run into. Whatever Captain Mar does, do not use any devil-fruit powers in front of him."**_

Mar was about to ask why and what would happen if someone did, but it was at this moment, when the admiral was off-guard, when two giant columns of water suddenly erupted from the ocean beside his ship. Reaching their highest point, the water descended on the marine ship in a twisting helix that would no doubt crush the vessel with the force of its weight.

The sight was so spectacular that to Mar, it seemed there would be no escape for the marine ship and they had been saved by some unknown entity.

But it was not to be.

"ICE AGE!"

Mar's jaw fell open as the surrounding water was turned into ice, and the water attack of doom was now a magnificent ice arch.

"So that's where the little rat was hiding..." the admiral growled. "Right under my ship!"

Mar on the other hand, was not so much concerned about where the water attack had come from, but the implications of what she had witnessed. "T-that's Admiral Aokiji's Ice-Ice fruit..."

"Aokiji, that old one-trick pony?" scoffed Admiral Imba, on overhearing her. "The lazy old coot is a relic of an obsolete age! The future belongs to us, the new generation of marines! Witness the New Age of Justice!"

With this he extended his right arm with palms out. Mar braced herself for another ice attack, but what happened next took her completely by surprise.

"ATTRACT!"

With much creaking and rattling, the entire ship was inexorably pulled towards the marine admiral. It wasn't just the ship, everything metallic in the vicinity, including the bits and pieces of shrapnel scattered on deck, were also being attracted as though by a magnetic field.

Suddenly Mar understood why the Disinfector had said it was too late to use the Coup De Burst.

**_"BRACE FOR IMPACT!_**" the Disinfector warned, grabbing Mar's upper arm with one hand and the railing with the other.

Mar head was pounding in pain at the terror and illogicalness of it all. It was impossible- _unthinkable_.

But there was no doubt about it- as the _Thousand Sunny_ was forcibly rammed into the fortified prow of the marine warship, Mar realized anew that Admiral Imba, in addition to having the powers of the Ice-Ice fruit, was also displaying powers virtually identical to those of the supernova Eustass Kid.

* * *

**End of Chapter 16**

* * *

_**A/N: Thanks for all the great feedback and reviews so far. I never expect them, but I sure do enjoy reading and appreciate each and every one of them. Just for the record, I don't hold this fic (or any of my fics, actually) to hostage. I simply update whenever I feel like it. It just happens that I've been struggling with a writer's block for "Though a Bird Can't Fly..." so I've turned to my favourite block-buster fic to get through this phase. Anyway, thanks for reading!**_


	17. The Most Powerful Devil Fruit

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, in which the author gives enough digs at various scenes that it could probably form an excavation site.

**Chapter 17: The Most Powerful Devil Fruit**

* * *

Newton's second law of motion states that "The acceleration of a body is parallel and directly proportional to the net force and inversely proportional to the mass".

While your head spins around and you are suddenly brought back to your high-school science class days by this, let me explain this in relevant terms for those want to know what this was all about.

If you recall, when we last left our protagonist Mar, she and the Disinfector were facing off against the very powerful Admiral Imba, who used his bootleg magnetism powers to pull the _Thousand Sunny _towards his marine ship (and crash the _Sunny _against it).

So why do we care about Newton's Laws in this situation? Well, it is relevant because we want to know if the force of the impact would be enough to turn the _Thousand Sunny_ into a mass of floating matchsticks.

Back to Newton, say we have our formula: "Force equals Mass times Acceleration"

Or **F=mA** — the force of the _Thousand Sunny's _impact when it rammed into the marine war-ship would then be proportional to how heavy the _Thousand Sunny_ was, and how fast Admiral Imba's magnetism powers were attracting it.

Fortunately, while inexorable, the speed at which the _Thousand Sunny _as being pulled towards the marine warship was not very fast, so despite the _Sunny_ having great mass (what being a ship and all), the damage from the collision was limited to some minor dents and damage to the figurehead, especially since the pirate ship had been made from the very durable Adam wood.

This did not please the admiral, who complained accordingly about the prow of the marine warship not being fortified enough. It should be noted that the equivalent of Newton's laws of gravity is taught in marine schools, but Admiral Imba, being too gifted with devil-fruit powers, clearly hadn't paid attention. In fact, to him, the formula **F=mA** meant:

**Force** in quelling: **Mass** arrests for **time **in **A Cell and Rations.**

It should be noted that most pirates, on seeing Admiral Imba appear on the horizon, had their own version of **F=mA **too. That is:

"This whole thing's a **Farce**! This whole plan's a **Mess**. **Time** to **excel at Race** Conditions!" (Which is a really fancy way of saying "Oh crap! Let's run away as fast as we can!")

So the conclusion we can come to here is: Most people don't pay attention in science class.

* * *

"Ow ow ow..."

"Ow" might be a strange way of reacting to having your head bumped against something hard because a marine admiral just slammed your ship against his ship with his magnetic powers (and no, none of those words are euphemisms for anything). However, in tense situations, you really don't get to choose your words.

Mar's head was already hurting from the logic discrepancy that Admiral Imba was displaying with his powers. Whacking her head against the railing hadn't helped. But the pain was nothing compared to when Imba, having dragged the ship into close range, briefly turned into some sort of pink-winged stick monster and jumped over from the deck of the marine ship and onto the _Sunny._

It took Mar only a moment to realise that it was some sort of zoan devil-fruit she had never seen before, and that moved the count of the types of devil-fruit powers Imba had up to three.

Now as we know, a normal human being can only eat one devil-fruit at a time. Edward D. Teach a.k.a. Blackbeard managed to get two through some mysterious means, but even that was considered an extremely unnatural feat. But three was setting a new record. Now the question you should be wondering, and are no doubt wondering, is how in the world did Admiral Imba manage to get three —

_Plink plink plink!_

"Is that all the infamous Disinfector can do?" mocked Imba as the three knives the Disinfector had thrown at the intruder harmlessly bounced off his body, which had turned into a human-shaped mass of diamond. "Throw some pointy pieces of metal at me?"

— sorry, let's make that four. As I was saying, how did Admiral Imba manage to get four —

"Now he has Diamond Jozu's powers?" Mar was forced to duck as every pointy metallic object that was being carried by the Disinfector came flying through the air at Admiral Imba, who simply smirked in the most irritating way possible and adopted a mud-like form, which easily absorbed and retained all the thrown weapons without damage.

— and now it's five. _Oh for..._

…

_ANYWAY_, how did Admiral Imba manage to obtain and retain _multiple_ devil-fruit powers? As you will no doubt recall, this is impossible in the One Piece world as ingesting more than one devil-fruit causes the eater to be torn apart by the two fruits' conflicting powers. Or something of that sort. But as it turned out, Admiral Imba had managed to bypass this limitation.

You see, Admiral Imba had eaten the one devil-fruit that rendered all this invalid.

"What are you going to do now, Disinfector? You're out of weapons, and you don't dare to use your devil fruit, because you know my Copy-Copy fruit powers mean I'd be able to permanently copy _your_ powers as well. And I wouldn't mind having them in my collection, I have to say!"

One startling inference from Admiral Imba's speech struck Mar then, but it was not the time to ponder about it in detail, because the name of his devil-fruit and its implications was more pressing.

_The Copy-Copy Fruit?_

Of course, having a fruit that allows the user to steal the powers of every other devil-fruit user and retain it permanently without drawbacks is one of the greatest power fantasies of every devil-fruit user wannabe. After all, who wouldn't like to have every ability in the book and being the exception to the limitations everyone else is subjected to?

The sad truth is, people only ever care about having a balance of powers when they aren't on the top tier. Ironically, because they aren't on the top tier, to be able to be the one effortlessly blowing enemies out of the way without having to work hard or be responsible about it is pretty much something most of the same people secretly wish they could do. Which makes them getting their wish a very dangerous thing, as any concern about keeping balance immediately goes out of the window and they become convinced that the whole world revolves around what they want and they way they think.

But I am ranting. Back to the story...

The Disinfector did not appear to be playing along with Admiral Imba's banter however, and stayed completely silent as he renewed his attack at the admiral with his autopsy knife.

"Oh let's play then!" Admiral Imba laughed and drew his katana. "It's been a while since I got to use this— I won't even use my powers!"

Both combatants engaged in a clash of blades. The admiral's katana was at least twice the length of the Disinfector's autopsy knife, but within a few bouts, even Mar's inexperienced eyes could tell that the admiral's skill, while fairly competent, was nowhere near the Disinfector's. Within seconds, the Disinfector had sent the admiral's katana flying and had closed in for the kill—

— only to have his knife bounce off the admiral's diamond neck when he attempted to slit it.

"Oh come on, Disinfector. Did you actually think I'd let you win?" sneered the admiral, not even bothering to defend himself from his opponent.

_**"Not really — SUNNY, NOW!"**_

Right on cue, the boom went swinging across the deck. With a jolt Mar realised that the Disinfector hadn't been trying to to beat Admiral Imba after all; the entire fight had just been a ploy to maneuver the marine into position so the _Sunny_ could knock the devil-fruit user overboard with the boom.

And because the admiral had been in his very tangible diamond form when this happened, it worked. Not expecting the ghost of a ship to join in the fight, Admiral Imba was caught off-guard and was swept over the railing.

The Disinfector, who had ducked to avoid the boom, stayed kneeling, Mar wondered if he had been slightly winded by the fierce fight. Still, it was fortunate that Imba had underestimated them. It would have been impossible for them to win otherwise.

It was then when Mar realised what was wrong "Disinfector! There was no splash—"

"ICE BALL!"

Something white and cold exploded on deck. The next thing Mar knew, the Disinfector had been encased in a sphere of ice, and there was the sound of flapping wings. She turned to see Admiral Imba rising from the side of ship, and he had taken the partial form of a giant bird made out of of blue flames.

In another way he was burning in anger as well.

"DISINFECTOR! You son-of-a-bitch! You nearly killed me! How dare you! _HOW DARE YOU?_" The admiral-turned-phoenix landed back on the deck of the _Sunny._ "A thermal hazard suit eh? Well, you won't break out of the ice in time, because I'm going to kill you!"

Much to Mar's horror, Admiral Imba had turned back into his human form, with the exception of his right arm, which was glowing red as though it was made out of molten lava. He was going to to punch through The Disinfector with it while the latter was still trapped in the ice prison.

"NO!" screamed Mar before she could think. _"STOP!"_

Now in movies, we often see people, on being faced with a horrific situation beyond their control, scream this very succinct and seemingly pointless phrase. I call it pointless because it is highly illogical that screaming a melodramatic "NOOOooooo!" would really make the situation suddenly stop and change for the better.

Which is why we should all be surprised when Admiral Imba actually did stop mid-punch and freeze in place.

"What is this...?" the admiral's voice trailed off in confusion at his own aborted action. Mar on the other hand, clapped her hand over her mouth on realising that she had just drawn the attention of fricking _admiral_ towards herself. What was she to do? What _could_ she even do?

As it turned out, she didn't have to answer her own question, because before she'd even noticed, the Admiral Imba had charged across the deck and swatted her so hard she flew backwards. Unprepared, she landed on her back, nearly crushing the straw-hat that was slung behind her.

"So this is your power, Pirate Queen? Well I'm not giving you a chance to use it again— but I will thank you for being foolish enough to use it in front of me! Copy-Copy: Control-See!" At this, the admiral's white irises suddenly changed colour and emitted rays of red light, in a manner that reminded Mar of her local supermarket's laser price-scanner.

"I see. What a strange devil-fruit power... and it's mine now! Copy-Copy: Control-V!" Admiral Imba flung his head back and laughed. "Yes! Yes! I can feel the new powers manifesting! I can —"

And then he suddenly clutched his head and screamed in pain. "My head... what is this? _WHAT IS THIS?"_

For a moment Mar was confused. Then it hit her. Admiral Imba had copied her own powers, which as we all know by now, came with complimentary headaches whenever one had thoughts that didn't make sense. She had gotten so used to the headaches and migraines caused by her Logic-Logic fruit that she had been resigned to them already. She couldn't help but think that Admiral Imba, for all his power, was acting like something of a wuss to be moaning over a headache.

What she didn't know of course, was how warped Imba's thinking had become after a lifetime of World Government propaganda and conditioning. Add to the fact that he himself was a walking contradiction of devil-fruit laws, the effect was amplified.

"Y-you witch! What have you done to me? I'll kill —" Admiral Imba, his body half doubled over and shaking uncontrollably, took one step towards her. But before he could get any closer, his body was suddenly thrown sideways and he stumbled.

"Why, I do believe that is the first time my blood bullets have succeeded in harming your human flesh, Imba," a jubilant voice called across the water. "A little too distracted to use your devil-fruit, are you?"

Mar turned to look at the marine ship and was surprised to see that while Admiral Imba had been busy boarding the _Thousand Sunny_, the marine ship had been itself boarded by two very familiar figures. Even from her position on the floor, she could make out the distinctive profiles of the Gurnarde and Walker, who were making very short work of the marines on board. She could see Walker nonchalantly using a marine to knock other marines into the water, while Gurnarde had evidently just finished skewering something with her trident, for it had been stained red with blood.

"D-damn you, S-sand-Dragon!"

_**"Should have paid more attention to own ship, Imba.****"**_ the Disinfector's hazard suit seemed to have some heating function and it had activated to melt the ice prison he was in. So far he had freed his head even though his body was still trapped.

"Have a few more shots courtesy of this 'little mermaid!', Imba!"

Upon saying this, Gurnarde made a strange flicking moment with her blood-drench hands. The liquid bullets moved so fast Mar could barely see them before they hit. Admiral Imba staggered, moaning in pain and rage. He also seemed to be losing control over himself. In fact, something within his body seemed to be tearing him up from the inside. Mar wondered what was going on, but the Disinfector on the other hand, understood immediately.

"_**Captain Mar! His multiple devil-fruit powers are leading to self-implosion! GET AWAY!"**_

The logical thing to do would be to get up and run away, but when Mar tried to, she suddenly discovered that she couldn't quite do so. Perplexed, she wondered why her clothes were stained with blood and why she suddenly felt so weak. And she realised the truth.

For those of you who don't remember your CP9 Rokushiki abilities, I should remind you there is a certain one where the attacker uses his finger as a gun and bullet. And this was actually what Admiral Imba had hit Mar with earlier. Mar hadn't felt any pain, so she had thought he had just swatted her, but as it turned out, it wasn't quite the case.

Oh and in case you are wondering why Mar hadn't felt any pain, shock and adrenalin should just about cover it.

But all this is not important outside of the context of why Mar didn't just run away. So let's just say that being unable to run, Mar did the next most logical thing to do to get rid of Admiral Imba. She grabbed on to the railing and said: "_Sunny!_ Coup De Burst! NOW!"

_Sunny_ needed no further urging. With a whine of the engines, the ship flew into the air and away from the marine ship.

Admiral Imba, caught flat-footed and more concerned over his own body's internal stability, never had a chance, and was thrown off the ship in the sudden movement.

The Disinfector, having managed to free his hands, (although his legs were still trapped in the ice) quickly embedded his autopsy knife deep into the deck of of the ship and managed to obtain a handhold that way.

Mar had grabbed on to the railing, but was discovering that holding on to the flying ship was not as easy as it seemed. Even in the best of times, her upper body strength was actually pitiful to say the least, and in her weakened state, what happened next was a foregone conclusion. She lost her hold half-way through and slid backwards along the deck.

From the corner of her eye she saw the Disinfector extend his hand to her. With the last of her strength, she reached out and grabbed it.

But maybe because it had been damaged in the fight with Admiral Imba, the contact lasted only for a moment. There was a ripping sound, and Mar once again found herself falling, a torn-off glove in her hand and the Disinfector now too far away to reach her.

Her eyes widened.

At the angle she was falling, she would hit the side of the ship and be knocked over the railing —

Into the deadly ocean below.

* * *

**End of Chapter 17**

* * *

_**A/N: Thank you for the reviews. It's always fun to read your reactions to the contents of the chapter. Writing this fic always seems to really help my writer's block and it seems to be showing some signs of breaking. With luck this means that next chapter of TABCF should be done soon.**_

_**The downside here is if I work on TABCF I won't be focusing so much on this fic. Still, I already have a good idea of the next few chapters already so it's just a matter of taking turns with my spare time. **_

_**In the meantime, can anyone identify all of the copied powers shown by Admiral Imba in this and the last chapter? There should be eight, including the last one which was Mar's Logic-Logic fruit. (One of them is non-canon as well, but I suspect anyone who reads my other fics will recognise it). Have fun!**_


	18. Deus ex Marchina

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, with atrociously punny chapter titles.

**Chapter 18: Deus ex Marchina**

* * *

A_ deus ex machina_ is a term used to describe a story device used when a character is in a sticky situation that they cannot get out of. Instead of a logical solution with proper set-up and foreshadowing, they are instead rescued by a powerful external influence that seemingly pops out of the woodwork.

Since nothing teaches as well as an example, imagine this scenario:

Mar is falling toward sea level at a rate of 9.8m/s. A mysterious flying figure appears out of nowhere, catches her midair and stops her instantly. Both of them are promptly knocked out by the impact of the sudden stop, and fall into the ocean and drown—

Crap, wrong example. Sorry, let me try that again.

Mar is falling... blah blah... a mysterious flying figure... blah blah... ANYWAY, mysterious flying figure catches her midair, and has the brains to slowly and safely deccelerate the both of them to a stop before they reach sea level. The presence of the mysterious flying figure has never been foreshadowed or mentioned before, he just appears to save the day.

That, ladies and gentlemen, would be a _deus ex machina_. Why? Because mysterious flying figure doesn't exist to be anything other than a plot device used by the author who ran out of ideas on how to save the main character.

Now with that explanation out of the way, let's get back to Mar, who is still sliding down the the _Sunny's_ slanting deck.

Unfortunately for us, when Mar reached the side of the ship, she hit her head on the railing (again). This time it was so hard that she got knocked out, and so we don't get to experience the rest of her near-death experience and find out if the author resorted to a _deus ex machina_ or not.

* * *

Because it is somewhat ridiculous to narrate a story from the point of view of someone who is currently out cold, let us jump to the point of view of someone somewhere else.

Don't panic, we're not going jump to someone's point of view in Sabaody or Marineford and leave you hanging or anything. We're only going to jump to a couple of kilometers away at sea level, which was below and behind the airborne Thousand Sunny.

The ocean was fairly choppy but not quite stormy, and travelling on those waves like a little bobbing boat was a straw-hat.

We've been through this bit before so I won't go into how it's The Straw-Hat, which Mar happened to be wearing when she was falling the Sunny and if it wasn't I wouldn't bother talking about it.

I will tell you, however, about how the hat was suddenly raised out of the water by a hand.

"Walker!" said the owner of the said hand, and by this single word you will know it was the mermaid Gurnarde speaking. "Behold this object, does it not stir a memory?"

"Little hunam's hat Gurnarde is finding?" said the mermaid's companion, looking very worried as he recognised the straw-hat.

"Indeed, I thought it was," Gurnarde replied calmly, examining it as she spoke. "I would venture that this does not bode well for our dear allies, does it?"

* * *

Some distance away, the Thousand Sunny had finally landed onto the water's surface again.

After the splash of the water had subsided, the crippled ship stayed oddly stationary, rocked by the waves.

On the deck itself, the Disinfector released his handhold on his embedded autopsy knife that had kept him from flying off the deck, and began moving purposefully towards the door.

He left the knife embedded in the deck because he currently had his hands full with about fifty-odd kilos of unconscious and bleeding girl. As you will all have figured out by now, yes, I am referring to poor finger-stabbed and concussed Mar. Or perhaps I should say, 'miraculously-and-suspiciously lucky not to have fallen into the ocean' Mar.

**"Sunny, can you move us somewhere safer?"** said the Disinfector as he walked.

"_Need to fix the sails first,_" was the ghost ship's reply. "_Can try after that._"

(In case you have forgotten, the fight with the marines had damaged its sail and mast, and this would have to be fixed before they could move. They were, as they say in sailing terms, 'dead in the water'.)

**"Let me know if anything happens, I have to go tend to the Captain,"** the medic said grimly.

"_Okay._" The ship's voice became rather plaintive. "_Doctor? It's good to have you back._"

This seemed to have a profound effect on the hazard-suited man. He paused for a moment, then made sure that Mar was still out cold before speaking again.

**"Sunny, as we have discussed before, keep this to yourself. Don't tell Mar or Mr. Suesse."**

"_Uh huh, I won't,_" promised the ship solemnly.

Later, in the sickbay, after all injuries had been tended to and he was satisfied his patient was out of danger, The Disinfector examined the damage to his hazard suit.

**"With luck she'll get amnesia from the concussion and won't even remember what happened," T**he Disinfector muttered, scowling at his tattle-tale bare hand**. "Otherwise things are going to get far too complicated for my liking."**

Then he put his torn-off glove back on and taped over the tear.

* * *

Now that we have established that Mar is out of danger, I guess I can finally jump over to Marineford, where a certain fleet admiral was sitting with a headache, which incidentally had nothing to do with Mar's devil-fruit. He was having a headache because news of Admiral Imba's defeat had reached marine headquarters and sent the entire high command into a panic.

The fleet admiral was not one of the panicking ones, however. In his personal opinion, Imba had been an overconfident and arrogant prat with absolutely no respect for justice or anyone other than himself.

As far as the fleet admiral was concerned, _good riddance._

He looked over Imba's dossier and by the way of relieving some stress, gleefully stamped 'DECEASED' all over it.

Then he made a face. What was with all these new generation of overpowered marines anyway? There were just so many of them. First there was that Rear-Admiral Ookami Goffick D. Kirakira SUGOI (apparently the D. stood for "Death") who apparently was some sort of super ninja-assassin marine (but not CP9, because apparently his 'ninjutsu' was superior and rokushiki was for wussies).

And then there was Commodore Angel D. Ariel, who was a flying fish zoan, and who had the unique ability of being able to fly AND swim. Because her devil fruit was of an aquatic animal, she was the exception to the 'devil-fruit users not being able to move in water and will drown' limitation. The Fleet Admiral had never understood how this was so, since even fishmen who ate devil-fruits had problems with that. But apparently, the commodore was just _special_ that way.

Then there was also that downright bizarre Vice-Admiral. He was apparently a half-giant (or was it a half-giant sea-monkey? Well, half-something-unnatural anyway), and had superhuman strength in addition being able command sea kings with some flute-thing of his. What _was_ his name again? Oh yeah... Hctib D. Elttli. Odd name.

The Fleet Admiral paused and frowned. _What the hell was with all the 'D's in their names, anyway?_

The fleet admiral had more pressing business to pay attention to, however. While everyone was running around panicking about the second coming of the Pirate Queen, he had noticed a detail or two which seemed to be far more important.

"You are absolutely _sure_ that the Sand-Dragon Gurnarde was seen abetting the Pirate Queen?"

"The lone survivor of Admiral Imba's ship was certain, sir. And he also insists that in addition to the fishman 'Demon' Walker, the Pirate Queen seems to have gotten The Disinfector on her side as well."

"Demon Walker goes wherever the Sand-Dragon goes, we all know that. But how did she get The _Disinfector_?"

"This corresponds with some reports we had from the Sabaody disaster, sir. There were some reports that the Disinfector and Demon Walker were seen in the company of the Pirate Queen."

"Damn. The normal rabble like the ones in Sabaody are one thing. But if Sand-Dragon or the Disinfector are in her crew, we're in deep trouble."

"What do we do, sir? If she can defeat Admiral Imba she must be something else. I doubt we can buy her off as Shichibukai."

"No, I doubt it as well. But why would the Disinfector...?" The fleet admiral trailed off, as if a thought had just struck him.

"Lieutenant! Get me the reports on The Underwater Submarine Incident twenty years ago."

"Those things, sir? But they're probably deep in the archives by now—"

"Get them _NOW_. And while you're at it, get me the files we have on the Battle of Loguetown as well. "

"Yes sir!"

After the lieutenant had left, the fleet admiral fingered the freshly-reprinted bounty poster of Monkey D. Madelyn and stared at it, deep in thought.

"The Disinfector comes out of hiding, the _Thousand Sunny_ resurfaces and the Pirate Queen returns..."

He slammed his fist against the desk.

"...there is a connection here... _I know it_."

* * *

When Mar opened her eyes, the first thing she became aware of was that she was lying on a bed. Judging from the careful placement of blankets and pillows, somebody had taken pains to make her comfortable.

"M-marie— Mar?"

The next thing she became aware of was that she was being hugged very tightly.

"I-I'm so sorry. For all my promises, I went to pieces and I wasn't around again. I'm so, _so_ sorry, Mar."

"Dad?" she murmured, finally recognising who it was. "You're all right!"

"I'm the one who should be saying that, kiddo," her father replied thickly. Mar couldn't help but notice that he hadn't shaven and looked as though he hadn't slept properly for days.

"What happened— ow!"

Her side felt tender. And her head, wrapped up in bandages, felt sore.

"I'm not sure, the Disinfector said you got hurt when we were under attack. He wasn't giving much information about it, really, and we were too worried about you to discuss it. How do you feel?"

"Lousy," Mar admitted, as her stomach grumbled. "And hungry. Is there anything to eat?"

* * *

"Why aren't we eating in the kitchen?"

"Kitchen's a bit of a mess. A cannonball got in the dining area. I'm still fixing it up."

"Oh."

The bedroom, with its scattered medical supplies, had been deemed too depressing to eat in, so Mar's father had decided to carry her to the bar lounge, which was reasonably neat and clean.

"OK, stay here, kiddo, I'll get you something to eat," her father told her, leaving her seated on the comfortable chair, warmly wrapped in her blanket.

Left alone, Mar couldn't help but notice that the ship was rocking with an odd movement that did not seem to match her earlier memories. She wondered if the damage to the ship had caused it. She was happy to notice that somebody had taken the time to clean out the aquarium, though, and the water appeared to have been changed too.

Bored, she peered at the aquarium and wondered if there were any fish inside. Previously the water had been murky and opaque and the only interaction Mar had with it was to avoid falling in and drowning. But now that it was cleaned she could see that—

"Ah Captain! Good to see you looking much better."

Mar nearly fell off her seat in surprise. A humanoid face was on the other side of the glass, unblinkingly looking in at her.

"Oh my. Did I startle you?"

"G-gunarde! I just wasn't expecting anyone to be in there..."

The mermaid smiled her rather unnerving predatory smile. "Ah, your crew did not inform your of our present arrangements then?"

"Arrangements?"

"Well I suppose your physician didn't want you to worry considering your precarious condition earlier," the mermaid mused. "You see, at first we came to return your hat to you."

At this, Gurnarde gestured at something that was sitting on the table: The Straw-Hat.

"It was quite a bother to track you down, but Walker was _quite_ insistent so I decided humour him."

"Thank you," Mar blurted in surprise.

"You're welcome. It was the least we could do considering you helped get rid of Admiral Imba. He _was_ getting to be such a bother, what with his constantly following me about and all."

"I uh—"

"That was rather impressive, I have to say. A human capable of fighting toe-to-toe with a marine Admiral such as he? Mm... I'd heard the stories of the Pirate Queen, perhaps they are true after all!"

"Actually I'm—"

"In any case, when we got here, we saw the situation you were all in and decided to let you all hitch a ride with us."

"... but we're on _The Thousand Sunny!_" Mar pointed out. She wondered if Gurnarde had meant it the other way and simply gotten her words mixed around.

The mermaid simply laughed, a strange sound as she was underwater. "Oh dear, Captain. I keep forgetting you aren't quite up to speed yet."

"Up to speed on what?"

Mr. Suesse had reappeared with a tray of food. Mar noticed he still was somewhat guarded when it came to interacting with the mermaid.

"As I was saying, our current travel arrangements. Perhaps you would consider partaking of your luncheon on deck, Captain? Walker is piloting the ship, he would be most happy to see you..."

* * *

"Walker is being happy seeing little hunam capitan!"

"Thanks, Walker," Mar couldn't help feeling touched that the fishman had been concerned for her.

She was now sitting on a deck chair (her father had insisted she not strain herself), all the while watching in amazement as her fishman friend guided the ship. Or more specifically, the giant sea-creature pulling the ship along.

"Your cook is quite the genius," Gurnarde was saying. "He came up with the rigging system which is currently allowing your ship to be towed along."

"I'm the odd-job man now it seems," Mar's dad supplied woefully, "Not much work for security consultants on board this ship."

Mar grinned at her father, and was immensely cheered when he smiled back.

"Where's the Disinfector?" Mar asked suddenly.

"Now that you mention it I haven't seen him for a while," said Mr. Suesse.

**"The Disinfector was below looking for**_** patient,"** _came the robotic voice, right on cue. **"Why did Locksmith Suesse move Captain Mar?"**

"What's wrong? Did I—"

**"Captain Mar is in fragile condition. She should have been checked by The Disinfector first."**

"Oh, right... I forgot about that." Her father turned to her. "Sorry kiddo, but let's move you down to the infirmary for a check-up."

"But I'm ok, Dad. _Really_. "

"Doctor's orders, Mar. Let's not argue, I'm sure the Disinfector just has your well-being on his mind."

But Mar had an uneasy feeling that it wasn't her health that the Disinfector was worried about.

* * *

**"So Captain Mar does not remember what happened?"**

"Well I remember bits and pieces... there was this marine who was like a bishie version of Smoker—"

**"Admiral Imba."**

"I don't remember much... I think he was fighting us right? How did we beat him? Gurnarde said I beat him but she must have been mistaken and all."

**"NO. Captain Mar did defeat him."**

"You're kidding? How could I possibly have done that?"

**"Captain Mar really does not remember?"**

"No. It's all fuzzy."

The Disinfector regarded her a while, and then seemed to accept her words, which also appeared to put him at ease.

**"Imba imploded from his multiple devil-fruit powers. Which is what should have happened a long time ago."**

"Uh, what does that have to do with me?"

**"The Disinfector has been suspecting your devil fruit to be the cause of the devil-fruit caveat finally taking effect. And many other unexplained incidents besides."**

"Incidents?"

**"The strange incidents that have been occurring on board."**

"You mean that thing with Walker again? Oh come on! Disinfector, I ate the freaking Logic-Logic fruit! All it does is just make me think logically or I'll get headaches. And stomach cramps. How could I possibly do something like defeat a marine admiral, or bring back the dead by just having the power of logic? I can't!"

A searing headache was the Logic-Logic's fruit's reaction as soon as she said that.

And then the implication sank in.

"You've got to be kidding me. I did do all that...?" Mar said aloud, realizing that her supposition was untrue, if the headaches were any indicator.

As if in reply the headache disappeared. Only to be replaced with a light cuff on the back of the head by a gloved hand.

**"Is ****Captain Mar not even aware of the extent of her own powers****?"** reprimanded the Disinfector, shaking his head in disapproval. **"The logical thinking is merely a side-effect of the devil-fruit. The Logic-Logic fruit does not just give one the power OF logic...**

That was when it dawned on Mar.

**"...it gives power** _**OVER**_**logic as well."**

* * *

**End of Chapter 18**

* * *

_**A/N: *T**__**he names and some concepts of Hctib D. Elttli and Ookami Goffick "Death" D. Kirakira SUGOI were based on suggestions from ijpowers92 and SebastianML respectively.**_


	19. Fussy Logic and The Bottled Fury

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, in this chapter of which there are **so many SPOILERS** that the narrator is not going to bother to list them since if you're not up to date with the manga as of December 2011 you're really tempting fate by reading fanfic anyway. ;)

**Chapter 19: Fussy Logic and the Bottled Fury**

* * *

If you'd just been told that your devil-fruit had the power to do what is pretty much change reality itself, you probably would be a little bit shocked.

The look on Mar's face in her case, could only be described as 'gobsmacked'. In case you don't know what that looks like, it is the look you get when someone has just smacked you in the gob.

**"The Disinfector first suspected this due to incident at Sabaody. Pirate fired at locksmith at point-blank range and missed—"**

"—the unrottening food! And the cola. And that fox-dude dropping dead! And and... and all this time all those freaky incidents... it was me. It was me! I was freaking myself out with my freaky freak powers!"

You will have to forgive Mar's incoherence. This is what happens when your brain moves faster than your mouth can handle: _phoot_— verbal diarrhea.

You will note I did not ask you to forgive Mar for her lack of angst on discovering that she was responsible for the death of Slashfang. That would just be being sanctimonious.

"—Disinfector! This means... I can just warp reality... I could turn myself into a goddess! Or give myself all kinds of haki powers. Be the most powerful— HEY! Disinfector, _what are you doing?_"

The Disinfector had produced a can of Ensuephalitis Cure and was meticulously spraying Mar with it.

**"Repeat treatment for Ensuephalitis may be in order."**

Mar's frantic speculations subsided. She did feel a little deflated however, as normally, when people discover that they've hit the superpower lottery jackpot, the normal response from others would be awe or even jealousy. 'Spray-with-aerosol-can-of-mystery-liquid', however, is somewhat less stoking to the ego.

**"As the Disinfector was saying... pirate missed his shot when was impossible he should do so,"** The Disinfector put the aerosol can away, satisfied she wasn't having a relapse of his mystery disease. **"And then fishman spontaneously recovered when it was unlikely he would survive. There were also the multiple incidents with Imba."**

"Maybe my power can warp... change the way things happen? Even in the past? After all, I un-rottened the food and un-flatted the cola and stuff like that and..." Mar suddenly trailed off, her tone growing quiet. "I just thought of something else: the slavers took my mom... I could make them bring my mom back."

"_**DO NOT TRY!"**_ The Disinfector said sharply, and very quickly.

"Why not?"

**"The extent of Captain Mar's powers are not clear yet. as of current observation, they appear limitless. Should there be any mistake in their usage, the magnitude of ensuing disaster would likely be equally unlimited."**

If you take moment to think about it, Mar's powers having no limits shouldn't be awesome. It should be _terrifying_. If her devil-fruit power could in theory, warp logic to do anything... it would also mean that that any slip-up on Mar's part could also do anything. As we all know, Mar's subconscious usage of her power in a dream could return the dead to life... heaven forbid what could happen if Mar had a _real_ nightmare.

This also seemed to occur to our protagonist. "D-disinfector, what am I going to do?"

**"Answer should be obvious. Develop control."**

* * *

Mar stared at a cotton swab on the table, but after half an hour of trying to get it to turn into sea-stone, the only thing she had gotten was a headache.

"I don't think my powers work this way," she said finally, messaging her temple.

"**Hm," **said the Disinfector. **"How is Subject attempting the transmutation?"**

"Well in my head I'm telling the swab to turn into sea-stone. But it's not working."

Mar could tell that despite tinted visor, the Disinfector was giving her a 'What an idiot' look.

"I know it makes no sense," she groused in reply, "but since the food going from rotten to fresh didn't either, logically, you would think this would work too!"

At that moment, Mar felt her insides cramp. "Ow!"

**"I** **s something wrong?"**

She was about to reply that it was nothing when her jaw dropped. The white cotton swab had suddenly turned greyish-green. Wonderingly she reached out to touch it, and the immediate draining effect it had on her confirmed what she had accomplished.

"It's sea-stone! I did it!"

**"_Hm_," **said the Disinfector again. **"Try something else." **He placed a test-tube on the table.

Mar found that she could keep the glass tube from rolling off the table (By arguing in her head that gravity would not affect it that way, it would inexplicably change direction right at the edge and roll back towards them). When allowed to fall (with her arguing in her head that the force would not be enough to break it) the fragile tube would remain mysteriously undamaged. Even the Disinfector striking it with a hammer did not break it, although Mar did discover it was getting harder and harder to use her powers each time as her stomach kept cramping more and more.

Finally, her powers failed and the glass shattered. Mar found that she was unable to restore the test tube to its original state even though she tried.

Then they tried the cotton swab again. This time all the arguing in her head did nothing. The new swab steadfastly remained soft and cottony.

"I can't do this anymore," she gasped in defeat, her head throbbing. "I keep getting cramps."

"**It would appear logic fruit has a limit for now,"** The Disinfector observed, jotting down notes as he did so. **"Injuries to user may be a factor."**

Mar's headache worsened at this, but she was feeling too poorly to comment.

"**Fishman says that we will arrive at next island in two days. Is best if Captain Mar focuses on recuperating during interval."**

The Disinfector gingerly picked up the sea-stone swab with a pair of tongs and handed it to her.

"**Also, take sea-stone swab and remain in contact when sleeping. Best to avoid any... unnatural accidents."**

* * *

With the possibility of practising her newly-developed powers shelved for now, Mar soon found her mind preoccupied with another issue that needed her attention. Part of her knew it would be wise not to dwell upon it too much because there was nothing she could do about it at the moment... but Mar couldn't help it. In the moments when she was stuck in bed with nothing to do and her thoughts would wander.

And it always wandered back to the same thing: her missing mother.

It was frightening to think of her mother as slave in the hands of the cruel Celestial Dragons. What Mar had heard of them had all but convinced her that the Tenryuubito were all nothing but monsters in the human form.

Mar's anxiety was made worse by the fact that she had no one to confide her fears to. Sure, there was her father, and while he seemed most supportive and sane at the moment, the fear of him experiencing another breakdown kept her avoiding the topic whenever they were together. Knowing the true situation her mother was in could in all probability break him again.

Walker (and Gurnarde in her non-homicidal moods) were amiable and all, but perhaps because they were so... unearthly to her, Mar found it hard to get even a casual conversation going, much less a on sensitive topic like this. Not that she saw much of them anyway. Walker was busy guiding the ship, and Gurnarde, acting as scout, would disappear from time to time and show up later with reports of having "cleared the path of obstructions".

Mar wasn't sure she wanted to know what Gurnarde considered 'obstructions'.

And then there was The Disinfector. The problem here was: Mar could tell that The Disinfector was deliberately keeping any contact with her to a minimum. He was never hostile, and he certainly never became as frightening as the time when he had started speaking in first person. But all the same, there was definitely a cautiousness around him that hadn't been there before.

Incidentally, it just goes to prove that the time since they had been sucked into this nightmarish world had changed Mar. For one, she was no longer as self-absorbed as she used to be, because she was beginning to take notice of the feelings of others.

In any case, confiding to anyone organic being out of the question, it only left the _Sunny_ itself. And in the end, Mar, desperate for someone to talk to, reverted back to talking to a ghost ship.

"Once we get you repaired at this Hawker Island we need to decide where to head next," Mar sighed to the ceiling. "While we're there we might be able to find some information at the next island. Either something about what happened to your crew, or the Heart Pirates, or what happened to my mom— Well actually I do know what happened to my mom but the problem is, I don't know which of the Tennyubito has her."

"If you wanted information on the Tennryubito, Captain, you should have asked an expert on such matters."

Mar sat up and was mortified to see Gurnarde standing in the doorway of her room. This was an irregular occurrence, as the mermaid never went below decks if she could help it.

"Walker said to tell you... something. It has slipped my mind. Oh... give me a moment to gather myself, I am sure I will remember in a bit."

Without waiting for a reply the mermaid plonked herself on Mar's vacant bed. A waft of something strong and vaguely repulsive— stale alcohol, assailed Mar's nose.

"Oh, yes... Walker says we are nearing the Hawker Island. Ugh, I hate that place, full of harpies and insufferable swine in the shape of humans. By the way, I hope you do not mind my helping myself to this bottle from your galley," the mermaid held up a bottle of rum as she said this.

Apparently, Gurnarde's aversion to accepting food from humans didn't extend to alcohol.

"I had to prime myself a little, being around masses of the humans there and not being able to slaughter them always puts me on edge. Oh... would you like some too?" Gurnarde extended the already half-empty bottle to her.

"Erm, I'm underage," Mar explained awkwardly. "My dad wouldn't approve."

"Tsk. Your sire is not here, is he not? Let him remain in blissful ignorance."

"Erm, yes he is here. You met him. It's my dad— Mr. Suesse— well the one who said you can call him Garreth... you know...?"

"Oh the cook? The cook is he?" Gurnarde looked genuinely surprised. "I would not have realised... but then, you humans do all look the same to me."

I should mention that Mar, to her credit, quickly let go of the unintended insult by reasoning that compared to the distinctiveness of mermen and fishmen, humans were rather featureless by comparison. It did not make her any less happy with the unwelcome presence of the mermaid, however.

Especially since she suspected that said mermaid was currently a bit drunk.

"...that _would_ explain the his behaviour towards you. I had thought him something of a maternal-fowl."

"You mean a mother-hen?"

"Yes. Yes. Still, for all his ineptitude in combat it must be nice having a sire who cares for you."

Mar suddenly had a premonition that she was going to find out more about Gurnarde in the next few minutes than she would care to know. And she was right.

"My own sire was not much of a nurturer. Admittedly, he was a very great swordsman of Fishman Island, but he was also a ne'er-do-well who only ever cared for two things in life: the drink and his fighting. This was still an improvement over my mother, who only cared for the drink.

"I did not mourn for either of them when they passed," the mermaid admitted callously, and took another long draught of the amber contents of her bottle. "Fortunately Walker and I, we both found better role models to take after. As children, Queen Otohime was such a shining beacon to us all.

"And then you humans assassinated her. And I hated you all. But then it turned out that it wasn't you humans after all, but a traitor within our own ranks. So that was all right.

"So, with our grudge against you humans gone, Walker and I joined the Neptune Army. I served at the right hand of the King Fukaboshi, you know..."

At this point Gurnarde paused, as if lost in thought, and took another swig from the bottle.

"At that time I did think you humans were such amazing creatures. I never dreamt then even the best of you would be the cause of our extinction."

"E-extinction?"

"You are of sixteen years of age, are you not? Too young to have witnessed the Last Battle in the East Blue twenty years ago."

Suddenly Mar sat up and paid attention.

"Do you mean the Battle of Loguetown?"

"Yes. Yes. That was what the humans called it."

"You were there..." whispered Mar in awe, realising the source of information that had been just dropped into her lap. "Gurnarde, d-do you know what happened during the battle? What happened to the people afterwards?"

Perhaps it was a good thing that the level of Gurnarde's bottle had been steadily going down, because it also reflected the declining level of the mermaid's reserve.

"What is there to say?" said Gurnarde bitterly, "Our King owed Straw-Hat a great debt. His honour would not let them execute the boy. Our entire Neptune army, and many others allies besides, marched against the World Government to save the man who had once upon a time, saved our kingdom. It was a battle the likes of which we will probably never see again.

"But even with the might of Poseidon on our side, we lost.

"In the end, after the Straw-Hat's head had been separated from his body and all that was left of us were fleeing from that ocean of blood, the World Government was still not content with their victory. They sent their hunters after us, and tried to cut off the retreat of Straw-Hat's crew."

"But they didn't succeed. I know some of the Straw-Hats escaped!" The fact that the Sunny still existed, and the graves... Mar knew that proved it.

"All but one of the humans escaped," Gurnarde clarified for her. "I know because our great fishman hero— Boss Jinbe, stayed back and they both held off the marines to the bitter end."

"Jinbe died?"

"Jinbe was the lucky one for dying rather than be taken alive."

"The other one didn't die?"

"Yes. I am sure it would have been more merciful for that one to have died in battle. Those who were captured alive were taken away to be used... I know not to whence or for what..." Gurnarde trailed off, noticing Mar's reaction to her information. "You look horrified, Captain. If only you knew of the greater atrocities those monsters committed to those who refused to yield after they slaughtered them. Even years now... it still makes my blood boil.

"That great sin I will never forgive them for— They took _HIM_!"

Overcome with her drunken rage, Gurnarde suddenly sat up and smashed the rum bottle at the floor. The shattering glass tinkled around her spiked feet. She did not seem to care.

"Those monsters! They took the slain body of our revered King as a trophy! No reverence for the dead— I will kill every last one of them for this disrespect! I will cleanse this world from all human taint!"

Mar shrank away fearfully as the ranting continued. But just as abruptly as the rage had flared, it cooled down into moribund muttering.

"No, I must not. King Fukaboshi said we were not to hate the humans for the sins of a few... but just a few... just those few! Those accursed Dragons who control the World Government. They who are fiends in human form! I will hunt them down for what they have done! I will teach them what it is to be the hunted!

"_I will turn their bones into sand... and feed it to their children_."

"Gurnarde?"

The appearance of Walker at this point was possibly the best thing that could have happened.

_"...they took... they took... turn their bones... to... sand..."_

Mar opened her mouth to explain what had happened, but Walker just nodded as if he had seen this all before.

"Gurnarde is being drinking and remembering old timings. Rememberings not good for Gurnarde. Is making Gurnarde sad."

It was an understatement. Mar could only watch silently as the giant fishman attempted to calm the manically muttering mermaid.

She felt bad for pushing the issue, but after all that had been said, she _had_ to know.

"Walker, you were at the Battle of Loguetown too, weren't you? Do you know which Straw-Hat Pirate was captured there?"

The fishman turned towards her. He did not stop attempting to console his sister.

"Walker there. But is not remembering name."

"Oh."

Walker noticed the disappointment in her face, and scrunched his ugly, misshapen face and seemed to be thinking hard.

"Walker not stupid."

"I didn't say—"

"Long ago Walker very good remembering and thinking. Talking too. Knew many big words. Then Burning Hunam came and now Walker not always... remembering... words good... anymore."

_**"So it was Akainu," **_interrupted a familiar voice. The Disinfector had also just walked into the room. It was beginning to feel quite crowded in the little space. _**"You actually faced Fleet Admiral Akainu himself and lived. Impressive. To survive an encounter with him is quite a feat."**_

Mar looked hard at Walker, but his mottled skin was such that it was impossible to tell if the uneven blotchiness all over his head and body was due to burn scars, or his natural appearance.

"Disinfector... why is everyone coming in here? Is something wrong?"

**"No immediate danger. The Disinfector only came to inform Captain Mar of our arrival. Hawker Island is in sight."**

The Disinfector's visored gaze was steadily fixed on Gurnarde as he said this. Mar's slight headache at this gave her some suspicion that his words hadn't been not exactly truthful. The Disinfector hadn't come to announce such a minor update. No, what he'd really come to check on was her.

"Walker going telling Branchy (for the sake of the reader, I should clarify that 'Branchy' was the name of the sea-king pulling the ship) to go Hawker Island. But Gurnarde is being needing helping now."

_**"Leave the Sand-Drunken to us," **_said the Disinfector. His tone didn't change, but Mar caught the deliberate mispronunciation.

The fishman nodded and turned to leave. Then he paused.

"Chop..."

"W-what?"

"Little hunam asked... name. Name is... Chop— Chop... Walker is not remembering good but is remembering 'Chop'. Chop..."

"It's _Chopper_. _Doctor_ Tony-Tony Chopper. "

Most of you will have expected the above line to have come from Mar. But I can tell you now that you should be surprised because it didn't. It came from The Disinfector.

"Disinfector, you _knew_ him?"

The Disinfector seemed to have realised his slip, because he immediately switched the topic.

**"The Disinfector will move mermaid somewhere else until she sobers."**

"Disinfector, are you T—" Mar froze mid-sentence, suddenly remembering she was entering dangerous territory by taking the head-on approach.

The medic did not react to her attempted question. **"We should form a landing party to search for a shipwright to fix the ship—"**

"Disinfector—"

**"Captain Mar, kindly prepare yourself for the landing. please try to look more like a pirate captain. there are appearances to keep up—"**

"Disinfector, do you know what happened to Chopper?"

**"—there is no time to waste."**

Mar had had enough.

"Disinfector, look! I know I promised not to ask you questions about yourself, and I meant it! But right now, I'm not asking you about yourself. I'm asking you what happened to Dr. Tony-Tony Chopper of the Straw-Hat Pirates. Please, the _Sunny_ deserves to know! They were nakama!"

There was a long silence as the Disinfector regarded her for a moment.

**"Captain Mar need not be concerned about this matter. The _Sunny_ already knows what happened to Dr. Tony-Tony Chopper."**

There was an unaccustomed note of bitterness in the Disinfector's normally controlled voice.

**"Such a person no longer exists. Dr. Tony-Tony Chopper died many years ago."**

* * *

**End of Chapter 19**

* * *

**_A/N: _****_By the way, in response to one of the reviews I got, I am quite aware that the Disinfector's ALLCAPS dialogue can be hard to read when there is a lot of it. I do apologise, but his dialogue is supposed to be in smallcaps, which is much easier to read, but which FFnet unfortunately also does not support. :( I've been going back and replacing it with lowercase, except for when he's being louder than usual. Hopefully that makes it easier to read._**


	20. Hawker Island

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, in which knowledge of the works of Alexandre Dumas and typical One Piece OC crew fanfiction would greatly augment the understanding of this chapter.

**Chapter 20: Hawker Island**

* * *

"Something wrong, kiddo? You look down."

Mar had been sitting very quietly next to the Sunny's figurehead, sadly watching the dark landmass that was Hawker Island grow steadily closer. Even from this distance it looked extremely colourful, but the prospect of civilization did nothing to lift her spirits.

"Nothing, Dad."

It was a lie of course. Mar was feeling, as they say, 'emo' after the shocking news she had received earlier. Sure, at least she had made a lot of progress on her 'find out what happened to the Straw-Hats' quest, but the more she found out, the less she liked what she discovered.

_Tony-Tony Chopper was dead. Chopper had died years ago._

For a while Mar had been secretly harbouring a suspicion that The Disinfector was actually Chopper. But those two devastating sentences, delivered in that bitter, dead voice, had put an end to _that_ particular suspicion of hers.

Poor Chopper. Poor, poor, adorable little Chopper. Taken by the marines for goodness-knew-what purposes and then dying alone. The thought of it was so horrible it made her sick to her stomach. It was like Gurnarde said, worse than just dying in battle.

"What's with the outfit, anyway?" Mar's dad had sat down next to her, and Mar knew of course he was worrying about her and was trying to make small talk so he could figure it out.

"The Disinfector says I need to look more like a pirate captain."

"Whatever for?"

"Well, something about the next island needing appearances to get by. I think he's planning on using my resemblance to that 'Pirate Queen Madelyn' to keep us from being attacked by other pirates."

Mar sincerely hoped that she did look the part, else she would have gone and raided Nami's wardrobe for nothing. Most of Nami's clothes had turned out been extremely fashionable in a modern kind of way. They certainly seemed rather unpiratey by stereotypical pirate image standards, but she did manage to scavenge a few pieces that would work, including a rather cool-looking red long coat and a yellow-and-gold patterned scarf she had turned into a sash.

Although why she should need a sash was another issue altogether. Pirate fashion isn't always based on practicality. We are talking about a world where people dress up as cats or heavy metal bands for their pirate theme here, after all.

"What, so you're going to pull a Edmond Dantes transformation into the Count of Monte Cristo now?"

"A what-what, Dad?"

"Oh you've forgotten that story already? It's a book, I used to read it to you when you were younger, remember?"

On thinking it over, she did. It was from the time before her parents had started fighting so much and her dad still spent time home with them.

The book was called _The Count of Monte Cristo, _and it had been exciting, full of pirates and smugglers and evil noblemen. In fact, it had been what had initially sparked her interest in pirate literature, which in turn had led to her interest in _One Piece_.

Even as she thought of that, her mind began moving faster and another thought struck her.

In _The Count of Monte Cristo_, the main character, Dantes, had been thrown into prison for like, forever, and on escaping, wanted revenge on the backstabbing friends that had put him there. But that wasn't the important detail that had struck Mar. No, the important point was that Dantes had gone around his hometown as the Count, saying melodramatic stuff like "Edmond Dantes is dead.", all the while planning his revenge and waiting for the best moment to throw off his disguise and declare (much to the horror of the targets of his vengeance) "I am Edmond Dantes!".

It got her thinking: what if the Disinfector's declaration that 'Chopper was dead' be actually more figurative than literal? What if... what if...?

"So you do remember?" her dad was saying, breaking her train of thought.

"Yeah!" Mar said absently, trying to regain her line of reasoning despite the interruption. "Mom used to disapprove... said those kind of books were too bloodthirsty for me—"

Mar abruptly stopped and clapped her hand over her mouth in horror.

Too late. A sudden grimace travelled over her father's face at the mention of her missing mother.

"D-dad..."

How could she have been so careless as to let that slip out? Now her dad was going to break down again and right when they couldn't afford it to boot!

But he didn't break down. He just took several deep breaths. "I haven't forgotten, Mar. I haven't forgotten about your mother."

"I know you didn't, I just..."

"...don't know what to do about getting her back," her dad finished for her.

It was then when Mar surprised herself by suddenly saying in a determined voice that didn't sound quite like herself. "But I think I do."

"What?"

"I have an idea about that guy who took Mom. I think the man you described was a Tennryubito; they're a really select group of royals. And Gurnarde mentioned she might be able to help us out in finding him... maybe if we ask her nicely?"

"Oh _her..._ you might need some stronger persuasion than _asking _for that, kiddo."

"Guess we'll have to think of something." Mar paused for a moment. The ship was almost next to the Hawker Island docks and she could hear Walker's grunts as he guided Branchy into position.. "But the first thing we ought to do is get _The Sunny_ fixed. Right now, without a working ship we're sitting ducks for whoever comes after us next."

* * *

"Ugh, I abhor Hawker Island."

Mar agreed whole-heartedly with Gurnarde. The crew of the Sunny had been on the island for the whole of an hour now, and Mar was already desperately wishing they could find a shipwright and get out ASAP.

It didn't help that the arrival of Mar and crew had been unavoidably flashy: The famed _Thousand Sunny_ with the legendary 'Pirate Queen' on board had been sailed into harbour. Towed in by a freaking _sea-king_, as if _that_ wasn't conspicious enough!

Mar didn't know it then, but news of Imba's defeat had filtered through ahead of them, and the rumours had been steadily growing out of control. As a result, gawkers had lined up on the sides of the pier to watch them dock. Fortunately Hawker Island was also the kind of place where a low profile really wasn't necessary. There is a reason for that, but I think Mar's dad put it best:

"Wow. It's like a careers fair for pirates over here."

Which should succinctly explain why Hawker Island is called so, and no, it's not because the people of the island hunt with birds of prey as pets. Hawker Island, like the Tortuga of our world, is a prime shopping point for pirate crews. Not just for stuff, but manpower. Pirates from all over the Grand Line flock to this place to recruit or be recruited.

"It's Monkey D. Madelyn!"

"Has the Pirate Queen come to expand her crew?"

"What a great opportunity! Pirate Queen! I'm applying!"

"I'm not—" began Mar in what was by now, her customary protest.

Of course no one was paying any attention to what she was actually saying. They were too busy doing what most people who like jumping on bandwagons do: They were 'sucking up' to Mar in hopes of joining her crew and basking in her reflected glory.

"Pirate Queen Madelyn, I am Storm Argentum Skyblade. I'm a great fan of yours, and I'd be honoured if you'd consider my submission to be a member of your crew!" A thick booklet that looked rather like a refrigerator manual was being offered to Mar by a rather pompous pirate who had stepped forward from the crowd. "I've attached my bounty poster at the back for further reference, in case you need it. I think the picture in particular, is..."

"Take mine too! I'm Aluara and I'm your biggest supporter!" another girl screamed, and tossed a bundle of papers in their direction.

"And mine!" The pages were beginning to rain down like oversized confetti.

Mar opened her mouth to explain she wasn't the pirate queen and she wasn't recruiting, but the Disinfector, perhaps fearing that she wouldn't sound pirate captain-y enough, stepped in.

"NO CROWDING. ALL SUBJECTS ARE TO MAINTAIN A DISTANCE of 0.9 METERS FROM THE CAPTAIN AT ALL TIMES."

Without missing a beat, the assembled crowd immediately shifted their attention to Mar's dad. You might think this is odd, but you might want to take a step back and consider what Mar's landing party looked like from an outsider's point of view.

First you had Mar, who thanks to her innate resemblance to Monkey D. Madelyn, plus a quick makeover and the Straw-Hat, did look like a passable pirate captain. She also happened to be flanked by three very dangerous-looking people: The Disinfector, Walker and Gurnarde. As you all know, The Disinfector and 'Sand-Dragon' Gurnarde in particular were rather infamous already. Pretty much everyone on the island knew them and their bounties, so that made Mar seem even more dangerous by association.

And then last of all, you had this relatively harmless-looking man following at the back of the group.

Perhaps it was because Mr. Suesse wore glasses and people tend to assume that any bespectacled person following a person of power must be their P.A. or secretary. Whatever the reason, the bewildered man quickly found himself inundated in a flood of papers passed from about a dozen scrambling hands.

"Mr. Secretary, pass my submission to the Pirate Queen!"

"Take mine!"

"And mine too!" screeched the girl who had earlier professed to be Pirate Queen's greatest fan.

Gurnarde, who had been steadily getting pricklier and pricklier as they were crowded, evidently decided that this was quite enough. Her spiny wing-fins suddenly unfurled in the manner of a peacock. Except that in this case the 'peacock' had very painful spikes on each of its 'tail-feathers'.

"The captain has urgent matters to attend to," said she, deliberately backing her fins into a pirate or two who had gotten too close. Shrieks of pain could be heard. "Remove your presences from her demesne and let us be about our business."

Walker followed her example by flexing _his_ venomous spines, which very quickly solved the crowding issue. The horde prudently backed away and gave them all a bit of breathing space.

"Thanks," said Mr. Suesse, who was curiously examining the reams of paper that had been tossed at him. "Huh, look! They even have pirate resumés."

_"Rest-sue-mays?"_

"Really?"

Mar's dad proceeded to hand her a few samples. "See for yourself."

Curiously Mar scanned the sheet. Anyone observing her face would have noticed her eyebrows raising higher and higher until it disappeared behind her bangs. I would endeavor to explain why, but the next part of dialogue would quite sufficiently explain her eyebrow elevation anyway so I shan't bother.

"You're right, dad. It is a resumé." Mar paused and frowned. "Argentum... Aluara O' Justice... Rue Evergreen... Okay, I get why they'd have their names and ages in there, but why in the world would anyone need to put down out their entire life story and dream in their resumé?"

_**"There appear to be an abnormally high number of dead relatives and tragic childhoods in background sections," **_was the Disinfector's comment.

"I also have doubts on the accuracy of those bounty numbers. And the veracity of their self-descriptions: 'calm and collected even in tight situations'... 'strong sense of justice'... 'funny sense of humour'... 'a fearsome fighter second to none'..." Gurnarde snorted from where she was reading over Mar's shoulder. "I would prefer to be the judge of _that_ when I slit your throat, thank you. Hmph, what kind of foolishness must one have to divulge in detail their abilities, devil-fruits and weaknesses to random strangers? It boggles the mind."

"Hm. What's an 'attack name'?" asked Mar's dad. "Is this some kind of default template for pirate resumés?"

Fortunately Mar was spared having to explain the rather ludicrous shonen practice of yelling out attack names, as at the moment Walker calmly leaned over, plucked the 'pirate resumés' out of both their hands, then calmly and methodically tore them to itty-bitty shreds.

"Little hunams not standing reading papers. Finding ship fixing now. Walker not liking island, want go." the fishman grunted firmly.

It had to be said, no one disagreed with that course of action.

* * *

"She's quite a mess, but I'm pretty sure I can have her fixed up in a couple of days... it'll cost'cha a mint though," the old gnarled shipwright said as they walked from the dock where the battered _Thousand Sunny_ had just been examined. A glint of greed appeared in the seasoned craftsman's eye as he took Mar and her 'crew' in. "I take beli, dials, ancient treasure, seastone and any kind of building materials in trade. So watcha got?"

After some preliminary haggling in the shipwright's yard, the amount of beli and treasure they had on board the Sunny turned out to be not nearly enough. Passionate entreaties turned out to have no effect on old man, who was similarly unmoved by their reputations.

"Those wiles of yours won't be working on me, missy. And it's no use trying to look scary over there, you three," he added, with a nod at the trio of Disinfector, Gurnarde and Walker, "I know the bounties on yer heads all right, but let me tell you now I'm the only shipwright on this island that knows jack about the job. Off me and ya'll be stuck with the half-baked know-naughts over yonder. Be lucky if yer ship even reaches the next island."

The shapely and extremely overdressed shipwright manning the yard next door scowled back in their direction. They had walked away from her earlier when a cursory chat with her had revealed she didn't even know what a keel or rudder was.

"Well, if ya'll can't pay, then get moving on. I'm a businessman, not a bleeding heart charity case!"

"Avaricious, wealth-grubbing Long-arms," muttered Gurnarde as they turned away. She had sobered up remarkably quickly on reaching the island, but there were some remnants of 'tipsy' from her previous drinking binge. "I despise them."

"We'll have to find some way of scrounging enough money," said Mar, already trying very hard to think of a plan. She tried to remember how the adventurers in the storybooks and Saturday morning cartoons raised funds. For some reason the only ones she could remember all seemed to involve winning some tournament or arena thing with prize money. Maybe they ought to look around the island and see if there was one on-going...

"... Dad, you coming?"

Mr. Suesse had not followed them. Instead, he was still standing and gazing at something in the shipwright's workshop, a furrow in his brow.

"What are you staring at my safe for?" demanded the shipwright irritably. "If you're thinking of breaking in, don't bother. Ain't gonna happen. Now get out!"

"Sorry, I was just noticing well... you don't keep anything _important_ in that archaic safe of yours, do you?"

"What's it to you what I keep in there? The thing's made of reinforced steel almost a foot thick, even a devil-fruit user would have trouble breaking it."

Mr. Suesse gave a polite little cough. "A safe's only as good as the lock on it."

"Lock's fine!"

"For about all of five minutes until someone cracks it."

"Yeah right. That's a nine-dial combination lock! Hell, even I have trouble opening the damn thing, much less a thief!"

"Well— if you're confident enough to bet on that hunk of metal for false security, suit yourself."

A glint suddenly appeared in long-arm tribesman's eye. "Are you telling me I'm stupid and my safe's no good? Well, tell you what Mr. Know-It-All, are you willing to put your money where your mouth is? You try and open my safe in five minutes! You do it within that time, I'll forgo the difference and fix that damn ship of yours. You lose, you fork over all ya'll got right now."

"Absolutely not."

A smirk appeared on the shipwright's face. "Thought so." He then proceeded to call Mr. Suesse a very rude name.

Unfazed, Mr. Suesse crossed his arms. "The amount you quoted us was barely 20 percent more than the amount we already have! With that kind of stakes, it's not worth the wager. What kind of fool do you take me for?"

The shipwright glared at Mr. Suesse. "Are you sure you ain't hiding a pair of extra elbows there? You bargain like a Long-Arm."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Fine! I'll match what you offered me earlier in beli if you win. And fix your ship. But if you lose, I get to keep your ship as salvage."

"Dad!" protested Mar in alarm, breaking the stunned silence she and the rest of the crew had been watching the exchange in. "We can't bet the _Sunny..._"

Mr. Suesse raised his hand. "It's ok, kiddo. I got this one."

* * *

"'Hundred fifty-six seconds..." muttered the shipwright in disbelief as he counted out the money five minutes later. "A hundred and fifty-six seconds!"

"Well, that looks like the agreed-upon amount. Thank you very much," Mar's dad replied genially. "Now, about getting our ship fixed..."

"Yes. Yes. Long-Arms don't back out of business deals," said the shipwright grudgingly. "Fine then. Go move your ship over here to be fixed. The sooner you lot sail off the sooner I'll never have to see your faces again." And with that he almost shoved them out of the door.

"Charming man," commented Gurnarde after they left the shipyard.

_"**Impressive negotiations,** __**Locksmith Suesse,"**_ the Disinfector added.

"Thanks. I'd make a killing working as a security consultant here. Their lock technology's stuck in the middle-ages."

"You would make a terrifying cat burglar, actually. I cannot fathom how you were able bypass the safe's mechanism so quickly."

Mar's father suddenly gave an abashed grin. "Actually, I could have opened it even faster, but I didn't want him to suspect."

"Suspect what, Dad?"

Mr. Suesse coughed. "Well, I was already pretty sure I could break into that safe, but as it turns out I didn't have to. Man had the combination jotted down on one of his schematic boards on the wall."

"Seriously, dad?"

"He mentioned he combination being so difficult he was having trouble remembering it himself, remember? Never underestimate the stupidity of convenience. In my experience, people in that situation often do something idiotic like writing down their passcode steps somewhere, just to keep from forgetting and locking themselves out. Series of nine numbers on the board? It was rather obvious."

"Dad, have I mentioned how freaking awesome you are?"

"Thanks kiddo. I figure I ought to get serious about pulling my own weight in getting your mom back. Mr. Suesse paused and held up the bag of beli he had won from the shipwright. "On that note, Disinfector, you seem like someone who would know about this kind of thing: I have a favour to ask. I need to get a good gun..."

* * *

"Strange, I don't remember there being this many ships around when we docked." Mar commented, looking around at harbour. A whole new fleet of ships had taken up position some distance offshore.

The Disinfector and her father had detoured into a gunsmith's shop while Mar, Gurnarde and Waker went ahead to move the ship. Mar had been rather taken-aback at her father's sudden resolve to being armed. It was so unlike her perception of her kindly, distant and determinedly unconfrontational father that she couldn't help but feel a little strange about the change.

"Many ships not being here before," Walker replied to her observation. "Branchy not liking."

Which was true. The sea-beast-of-burden they had left guarding the Sunny was chafing at its harnesses, clearly not at ease with the new arrivals.

"Walker is not liking too."

"Be wary! I perceive more of your adoring fanatics approaching, Captain."

"Oh great. Just great," groaned Mar as the crowd rushed towards them, screaming wildly in excitement.

"There she is!"

"It's her! The Pirate Queen!"

"Take me!"

"No, take me!"

Within seconds, they were surrounded, and just like before, a hooded man, filled with self-importance, stepped foward from the crowd. Mar braced herself for another pompous speech from another crew-mate wannabe.

"Monkey D. Madelyn? I am Sq—"

"We're not recruiting," both Mar and Gurnarde said in unison, cutting him off.

But the man seemed completely unruffled by the rejection.

"I wasn't asking to come along with you," said the man, flipping back his hood to reveal his flowing locks of long, unnaturally green hair. "In fact, you could say it's the other way around. _You're_ coming with _me_."

"I do believe the captain is not in the habit of taking orders from random viridian-tressed dandies," Gurnarde informed him snidely, twirling her trident as she did so.

"Back off, mermaid. Let me put this in terms your little fish-brain can understand:" The man pointed at Mar. "Hand her over, and you and that walking turd won't end up stuffed fish-fillet like the rest of your species."

A very dangerous look appeared on the mermaid's countenance as behind her, 'the walking turd' growled.

"Oh? You, and what armada, kelpling?"

"This one," the man shot back triumphantly, and fired a smoke flare up into the sky.

It was obviously a pre-arranged signal; the standards on the many ships that were waiting offshore quickly unfurled in response. And one by one, they all revealed the same symbol that signified their allegiance: a smiling face surrounded by T's.

"Gurnarde, Walker, this is bad!" whispered Mar as she recognised the symbol.

The man smiled coldly at her alarm. "Oh yes, it is. I never did introduce myself properly, did I?

"I am 'Death Mist' Squall, first mate of the Heart Pirates. Now come quietly along, or _die_."

* * *

**End of Chapter 20**


	21. The Pirates of The New Age

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, in which multiple readers will no doubt go: "HAH! I KNEW IT!".

**Chapter 21: The Pirates of the New Age**

* * *

When given a choice between dying and doing something, which choice you pick really depends on what kind of person you are. Most people, on being offered a choice, would pick the not-dying option, even if that option, if one stops to think about it, is pretty much the same as dying anyway, just delayed.

An example of such an option would be surrendering oneself to the mercies of a bloodthirsty pirate such as the so-called "First Mate of the Heart Pirates'".

Most people, however, don't have possession of a Logic devil-fruit, and as you all know, Mar did, which was why buckling to Squall's demands was not even in her list of options.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," said she accordingly.

"If I were you I'd think carefully before I'd say that. You're already in trouble for going around and calling yourself the Pirate Queen!"

"I—" Mar began.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" yelled a shrill voice. Mar recognised it as coming from one of the fangirls who had been mobbing her earlier. Mar vaguely remembered her name as Alu-something. The girl had run forward, and was belligerently confronting the so-called 'first mate of the Heart pirates'.

"You should feel ashamed of yourself, you—" (here the girl proceeded to string together a sentence which consisted of some very vulgar words) "—Pirate Queen Madelyn is the most amazing pirate in the history of the world and I've been her greatest supporter ever, so stop bothering her and seriously, f—" (and here the potty-mouthed girl once again let loose a string of expletives that would have given even Mr. Suesse pause, if he had been present).

Squall however, just laughed. "You didn't hear what I just said to her, did you? Well let me tell you now, little lickspittle, that that girl you're kissing the ass of isn't the real Pirate Queen."

"YES! THANK YOU!"

Gurnarde turned to look at Mar, one scaly eyebrow arched high at her apparent delight over the accusation.

"Captain, do you mean to say that you are _not_ the Pirate Queen?"

"I've never claimed to be the Pirate Queen to begin with," Mar said with some asperity. "They all just assumed I was and no one even listens when I say I'm not!"

There was a stunned silence from the crowd.

"Wait- she's not the Pirate Queen?"

"She's just a fake!"

"You mean all this time she's been leading us on?"

Mar's head started to throb. "What are you talking about? I just said I've never called myself the Pirate Queen—"

Squall rudely interrupted with a loud guffaw. "You're expecting a mob of emotional people to be reasonable? What a fool!"

"Wait... I think... that is really 'Death-Mist' Squall of the Heart Pirates!"

This was followed with a sudden shriek of horror from the Alu-something girl.

"You mean I've just been rude to a real officer of the Heart Pirates?" The profane girl turned angrily and glared at Mar. "You awful girl, you ruined my chances to join my dream crew!"

Actually, she didn't exactly say "You awful girl", nor did she say "you ruined my chances...". In fact, if I had repeated her exact language, the author would have to up the rating for this fic and apparently she doesn't want to do that. So for any further dialogue from that particular character, I'm going to tactfully translate and let you use your imagination, ok?

Anyway, the girl had finished her torrent of unrepeatable language was now saying to the Heart Pirate:

"Mr. Squall, please forgive me! That imposter tricked me! I didn't know! I'm your biggest fan, really! My dream is to join the Heart Pirates! Please-oh-please put in a good word with The Pirate Queen for me! "

"Me too!"

"Me three!"

"Hey, let's teach that faker a lesson!"

"This not good," grunted Walker uneasily.

"Your supporters appear rather fickle-minded, Captain," Gurnarde commented, taking note of the shifting mood of the crowd.

Mar was feeling rather nauseous. "They're not my supporters. They're freaking opportunistic parasites!"

There was an angry bray from the mob at this.

"If you're so eager to egg on your own lynching, imposter girl," gloated Squall, chuckling. "Well, why don't I just speed things up?" And then he turned to address the rumbling crowd.

"Listen up! If any of you are truly for the Pirate Queen, then prove it! Capture that imposter and kill those fish-freaks. Whoever helps me now will find themselves in the good graces of the Pirate Queen Monkey D. Madelyn, the real captain of the Heart Pirates!"

"Now you're talking!"

"Take that faker prisoner!"

"Let's fry some fish!"

With an approving roar the crowd surged forward, but the sound of a gunshot stopped them in their tracks.

"Not my daughter, you won't!"

"**And for the record, Monkey D. Madelyn was never the captain of the real Heart Pirates,**" a voice added.

"Disinfector! Dad!"

The crowd parted and Mar could see the Disinfector calmly standing at the back of the crowd, her father (now sporting a new backpack and armed with a revolver) at his side.

Squall noticed them too. "Ah, and there is the other outworlder man. Excellent, that will save me having to hunt him down."

"My dad too? What do you want with us?" Mar demanded angrily.

"You'll find out soon enough, imposter girl. Hey! You there! Disinfector! Hand over the man now!"

"**The Disinfector declines.**"

"You don't get what's going on, do you, you penguin-suited freak? My armada is anchored offshore, and each of them has a cannon pointed at Hawker Island. If I so much as give the word, everyone on this island gets it."

"Hang on, that would include yourself! You'd get blown up too!" Mar pointed out logically.

Irritatingly, Squall ignored her and just continued addressing the Disinfector. "Or I could have what's left of your outdated little wreck blasted into smithereens!"

Mar decided to be just as irritating and continued addressing Squall: "You wouldn't dare! It was the ship of the legendary Straw-Hat Pirates! Isn't Madelyn supposed to be Luffy's sister? It's way too valuab-"

"Who cares which bunch of has-beens that ship belonged to?" Squall snapped at her, evidently annoyed. "That was the past! Who even cares about The Straw-Hats any more? They're all long dead! D-E-A-D!"

**"Not all of them."**

All eyes turned to the Disinfector.

"Just what is that supposed to mean?" demanded Squall.

But the Disinfector said nothing in response.

"What, you're not going to tell me you're actually one of those has-been Straw-Hat Pirates now, are you, Disinfector?"

For the longest moment there was no movement or sound from the Disinfector as he seemed to be in the grip of some internal struggle. And then, as if resigning himself to his fate, he shrugged.

**"Why deny it anymore? Yes, I AM a Straw-Hat pirate."**

The robotic persona and voice of The Disinfector had melted away into something undeniably human. Mar's mouth fell open. She had long suspected the Disinfector's identity, but to have it confirmed like this was never within her expectations.

Squall, who had been also staring at the Disinfector in disbelief, quickly recovered from from his shock. "S-so what if you're a Straw-Hat pirate? This is a great new pirate age, the likes of which outdated old relics like you don't belong. What can you do, anyway, old-timer?"

**"I can slaughter each and every last one of you,"** replied the Disinfector, in a voice that left no doubt that he _would_.

"I'll help you!" volunteered Gurnarde with barely-suppressed glee. Walker grunted his approval.

"Fine! If you all want to die so badly, I'll be happy to oblige you!" Squall drew his sword at the threat. Its long black blade glittered in the sun, and drew the eye to the flower-shaped handguard.

Mar instantly recognised it and was filled with burning rage.

"That sword's _Shusui_! ... It was... YOU!" Mar had never hated anyone so much before. She wished that Squall would drop dead in the most painful manner possible. There and then.

But hers was not the power of random wishing, and nothing of that sort happened. Well... except for Mar screaming angrily at Squall: "YOU WERE THE ONE WHO DEFILED THEIR GRAVES! GO... GO DIE IN A FIRE!"

"**Suesse..."** The Disinfector said, never taking his gaze off Squall.

"Mar! Let's go!" While Squall and the Disinfector had been busy exchanging words, Mr. Suesse had taken the opportunity to make his way to them, and was now pulling Mar by the hand in an attempt to lead her out of the mob of combatants.

"But..."

"Leave it to them, kiddo," her father told her firmly.

Behind her, she could hear the Dinfector speaking in his now non-robotic voice:

**"For robbing Roronoa Zoro's grave, and threatening the Sunny-go, Squall, I will cut your pitiful little black heart out."**

"Easier to say when you can't do it! What are you lot waiting for? KILL HIM!"

* * *

Things began happening very quickly after that. Mar had a confused impression of being rushed by assorted pirates hoping to capture them. But those pirates quickly found themselves more than a little preoccupied, thanks to the combined intervention of Gurnarde and Walker.

"Go, little hunams!" grunted Walker, spiking several pirates who were busily shooting at the quicksilver Gurnarde.

Split-fin mermaids, Mar noticed, were a lot faster on dry land than their younger counterparts, thanks to actually having _legs_. Mar was surprised Gurnarde was still fighting for them, but right now was not the time to look at a gift horse in the mouth.

"Dad, where are we going?"

"Well, the Disinfector said to get you out of harm's way the moment fighting started. Originally we thought the ship would be the safest place, but if that punk creep's got cannons aimed at the ship, we need an alternative plan."

"Do you have one?"

"I was thinking: find a defensible position to hole up in until this whole mess ends. This should do!"

'This' referred to one of the houses near the docks. The front door had been left open. Mar wondered if the owner had fled or if they were one of the ones currently involved in the chaotic battle raging around them. She didn't have time to ponder long, she was too busy helping her father barricade the door while he checked to make sure no one was home.

"What now?"

"Upstairs. Better to take the high ground."

Fortunately for their purposes, the house had a balcony with some convenient cover. It also commanded a good view of docks, where they could see the battle unfold in gory detail.

"Are you gonna shoot at them from here, Dad?"

"Not with a revolver. Not a good weapon for long range shooting, kiddo."

"How'd you know so much about guns anyway? I thought you didn't like them."

"I don't. But I do work for a _security_ company. Gun nuts everywhere. They even took us to a firing range for our orientation- _shh!_"

Any further conversation was halted as voices could be heard from below.

"...you sure you saw them come this way?"

"Yeah. They were slinking away like rats. They're probably the weakest ones of the bunch."

"Let's search for them!"

Mar paled a little as a rattling sound came from below. They had found the barricaded door and were trying to break it down.

"Stay here," her father whispered, and crept back towards the stairwell, gun in hand.

Mar hoped her father would be all right. Was he going to shoot those pirates downstairs in cold blood? Could he even bring himself to do such a thing?

To keep her mind off the question, she decided to keep tabs on the battle situation. From her vantage point, she could see Gurnarde swooping around wreaking havoc amongst the pirate ranks while Walker, slightly more sedate, held his ground and battered into a pulp any pirate foolish enough to get in range. And lastly, the Disinfector was fiercely engaging Squall and the another group of pirates near the _Sunny_, who was getting in on the action thanks to a mysteriously self-loading/self-firing cannon.

Part of Mar felt ashamed to be scared and hiding away while her allies fought tooth and nail, but the other logical part of her knew that she wasn't a combatant and the best thing for her to do was stay out of their way.

Suddenly, she heard gunshots from the stairwell.

"Dad!"

Immediately redirecting her attention back towards the stairs, she was surprised to find herself eye-to-eye with a giant frog.

Now if you're wondering how it should be that Mar could even be eye-to-eye with a giant frog considering she was hiding in a balcony above street level, the answer is simple. That pirate happened to be a tree-frog zoan who had made good use of his ability to stealthily jump up to second floor of the building instead of trying to break down the front door.

I regret to say he also made good use of the tree-frog's long and sticky tongue. Before you could say "Shanks!" the tongue had flashed out, caught Mar and bodily yanked her off the balcony and right into his giant gaping mouth.

* * *

As you can imagine, being trapped in such a confined space, barely able to breathe and covered in what felt like slime, Mar's experience in the mouth of a frog was somewhat disorienting and terrifying. Still, she kept her head and did not quite panic.

From the jerky jolting movement, Mar quickly deduced that the pirate-frog had jumped away and was taking her somewhere, presumably to be handed over to Squall. She also realised this was something to be avoided at all costs. Right now others could fight freely without worrying about Mar or her dad, but her being taken hostage would change all that.

"I'm not going to screw things up for everyone. I am not!" she told herself.

What she needed to do was find a way to make the frog-pirate spit her out. The problem was, she could barely move, her arms were partially trapped by the frog's tongue, and her feeble attempts to kick the inside of the frog's mouth didn't seem to be doing anything.

As one would have expected, she resorted to trying to use her devil-fruit powers. But much to Mar's disappointment, her mental arguments about how the frog suddenly wanted to cough her out did absolutely nothing.

It was a terrible time for her powers to fail her, but still, 'fail' did give her an idea. In her coat pocket, wrapped in a handkerchief, was the sea-stone swab the Disinfector had told her to hold on to while she slept. If she could just take it out and touch the frog with it, his zoan powers would fail and she might be able to escape.

It took some maneuvering, but she managed to slip two fingers into the pocket and grip the edge of the hanky with her fingertips. Inch-by-inch, she pulled the bundle out until the lump of energy-draining stone rested in her hand.

Most protagonists, on reaching this part, would now take this opportunity to spout a one-liner or two. Something along the lines of: "Choke on this!" or "Oh you just bit off more than you can chew, froggy!".

Sadly, Mar missed this golden opportunity to wisecrack, because as a devil-fruit user herself, bare contact with the sea-stone drained _her _too, and this caused her hand to fumble so much that she accidentally dropped the sea-stone down the frog's gullet.

The reaction was immediate. Mar found herself violently barfed out of the frog's mouth.

It took her several moments to collect herself and get used to the overwhelming brightness and noise. Then she sat up, wiped slime out of her eyes, looked around.

On the ground behind her was a pirate who seemed to be retching and spasming uncontrollably. Even if he no longer resembled the amphibian, he was obviously the tree-frog-pirate who had swallowed the sea-stone, so I don't regret to say Mar didn't spare him any thought or sympathy and simply scrambled away from him as fast as she could.

She was beginning to get her bearings too. The frog-pirate must have been planning to bring her straight to Squall, because the Heart Pirate was still busy fighting the Disinfector a scant fifty meters away.

A flash of movement caught her eye, she managed to dodge just in time as a huge metal war fan, almost the same size as Mar, came crashing down where she had been standing a moment ago. Mar glanced up to see the Pirate Queen's 'biggest fan', Alu-something-or-other (whose name I cannot be bothered to remember), standing over her with an expression on her face that wouldn't have looked out of place in a _Psycho_ film.

"You are going to die horribly for trying to trick me, you distasteful imposter!"

Well, she did not actually say those words, but we've been through this already.

_She sure wasn't kidding about the 'biggest fan' thing,_ Mar couldn't help thinking as the rabid fangirl raised the weapon again for a second attempt at Mar's life. _And_ _how is it even logical someone tiny like her can lug around a weapon THAT heavy and huge—_

There was a blood-curdling shriek as her attacker suddenly crumpled beneath the weight of the massive fan.

Mar blinked, stared at the whimpering girl,who was now trapped beneath her own weapon, and came to a welcome realisation: Her Logic-Logic powers had returned.

And not a moment too soon, considering that she was currently in the middle of chaotic battlefield with no other means to defend herself. Another pair of pirates not too far away had spotted her and were coming for her, so Mar wisely turned and ran for the closest ally she could see: The Disinfector.

"Not so fast!" said the two pirates, who had transformed into a rather stereotypical-looking winged angel and a butterfly-winged fairy respectively. They were airborne and had a net between them.

Just to prove that swearing in front of your children does influence them to do the same (coughMrSuessecough), Mar swore as she fled. There was no way she could outrun the 'fliers', but then another idea struck her. It was not a very original idea. In fact it was directly inspired by what had happened to Ala-Aru-whatever. But that didn't make it any less good of an idea.

_Wings that small shouldn't provide enough lift for those two to fly,_ Mar thought as hard as she could, consciously willing her devil-fruit powers to kick in. _No way that would be enough to defy gravity. They should be falling, not flying!_

And they did. This time the blood-curdling shrieks came in stereo as both girls hurtled towards the ground.

"Disinfector! Watch out!"

The hazard-suited man saw the falling path of the two pirate-girls (and net), and with the grace of someone who probably had enough practice dodging the _Sunny's_ Boom of Doom, prudently disengaged and moved out of the way.

Coincidentally, Squall and his throng of groupies, whose respective ships' ghosts did _not_ have homicidal tendencies, were all caught flat-footed and they went down in a tangle of netting and limbs.

"**The** **Logic-Logic at work?"** The Disinfector asked as she came running up.

"Er... yeah. I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it. It seems to work by—"

How exactly it seemed to work Mar never did quite get to explain properly, because the Disinfector suddenly shoved Mar away. There was a sharp clash of metal on metal, and from her position on the ground, Mar could see the fragments of the Disinfector's shattered autopsy knife tinkle onto the dirt, followed by drops of red blood.

"Disinfector!"

The man in question was still standing protectively over her. His defense against Squall's sneak attack had only been partially successful due to the destruction of his knife against the far-superior _Shusui_. The Disinfector's counter-attack on the other hand, had driven the stump of the ruined knife into Squall's chest.

But instead of crumpling and dying, the Heart Pirate just laughed and dissolved into a green haze.

"He's a logia!" gasped Mar, understanding now how Squall had gotten out of the net so quickly.

"**Evidently,"** The Disinfector replied, calmly plucking out a shard of his own knife that had pierced his forearm. He didn't even seem concerned about the fact that he was bleeding.

"Why did you even bother to save _her_, Disinfector? Your ruse is up, you don't need your little impersonator anymore!"

**"That is none of your business. On the other hand, you might want to pay attention on how your numerous new recruits aren't even able to handle a single mermaid and fishman. And a security consultant."** The Disinfector added as an afterthought.

True enough, the battle was almost over, and strolling towards them, over a battlefield of downed pirates, were two very bloody figures: Gurnarde and Walker. From the distant balcony, Mar could see her father looking out at them (and looking for her). It was hard to tell, but he _seemed_ all right.

Squall spluttered as he took in the utter defeat of his forces. "I don't need a ragtag bunch of wannabe pirates to defeat you all! I don't even need my _real_ crew! I am the Death-Mist! I alone will be enough!"

And with that, a mass of sickly green mist began rushing towards Mar again.

Now, the Mar of a few weeks ago would have probably just stood there frozen in panic and gotten killed for her pains. The Mar of a day or two ago, on the other hand, would have probably shrieked, dived out of the way and relied on one of her companions to save her.

But the Mar of today had been considerably hardened by her experiences. _This_ Mar calmly held her ground and thought as hard as she could about how mist could not move of its own volition, and as the wind was blowing from her towards Squall, there was really no way that he could advance in that form.

Which was logical, but apparently not to now-backwards-wafting Squall.

"What the... why can't I move? What have you done, you little minx?" he snarled at Mar as he shifted back to his flesh-and-blood form. "How did you stop me from flying?"

It was an unfortunate choice of words and timing, as it was at this point when he was ironically sent flying by a few hundred pounds of charging fishman.

"Kelp fog not hurting little hunam captain!" roared Walker angrily.

Squall was not so easily defeated though. He quickly staggered to his feet again, turned back into intangible fog, and was promptly hit and knocked back into human form by an invisible wave of force.

"Did you know that Merman Combat works on all forms of moisture?" Gurnarde commented cheerfully, her palm open and arm outstretched in her combat stance. "Fog too. How incredibly inconvenient for a logia like you, don't you think?"

**"Don't kill him just yet, Sand-Dragon—"** the Disinfector interrupted.

The smiling line of Gurnarde's mouth turned down.

**"—he has information we need."**

Gurnarde's lips curled upwards into a cruel smile again. "Would you like me to coerce it out of him?"

This sent Squall into a rage. "You _think_ you can make me betray my Queen, Sand-Dragon? Who do you think I am?"

"Kelp," said Walker.

"Absolutely nothing," said Gurnarde.

"A grave-robbing ass," said Mar, unable to help herself.

But it was the Disinfector's response that was most telling.

**"A pawn who can lead me to _her_. And you will talk, Squall, make no mistake of that."**

Realising he was outnumbered and outclassed, Squall desperately pulled out a den-den mushi and proceeded to scream into it.

"Squall to fleet: Shell the island! SHELL THE ISLAND!"

* * *

"He's going to kill everyone on this island? Is he crazy?" gaped Mar in horror.

"**He is a logia, he can survive what the rest of us cannot."**

It was impossible to get everyone off the island in time. Even now they could see first shots being fired, but luckily those fell short, hitting the waters (and a few boats that were not the _Sunny)_ just before the docks. And more were coming.

Mar trembled in fear despite hereself. A zoan, a mermaid and a fishman... all powerful fighters, but against a shelling such as the one in Sabaody there was surely not much they could do? No, the only thing here that had any chance of saving the island and their lives was her devil-fruit ability.

But before Mar could run forward and attempt to use her powers, she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

**"No, not yet, Mar. Leave this to me," **the Disinfector said quietly as multiple reports of cannonfire heralded another incoming barrage. And then he stepped forward.

"What say you now, Disinfector? Are you now ruing the day you crossed the Pirate Queen Madelyn and the Heart Pirates?" Squall mocked in his mist form.

But the Disinfector seemed unfazed. **"Like I said, that woman was never, ever the captain of the real Heart Pirates..**."

A blue light was forming the palm of The Disinfector's hand. And even as Mar saw and understood what it meant, it rapidly expanded into a massive blue light-dome that engulfed the entirety of the island.

_**"... I was."**_

* * *

**End of Chapter 21**

* * *

**A/N: And finally I justify my use of 'T. Law' in the 'Characters' field.**

**Thanks for the many kind reviews and recommendations. Oh, and well done to those of you who stuck with the "Disinfector is actually Law' theory (Trafalgar Riley, especially). It couldn't have been easy c****onsidering the sheer number of red herrings there were to make you think it would be Chopper, so I'm still amazed how you guys saw through it.**

…**how did you, anyway?**


	22. The Last StrawHat

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! **

A Deconstruction, which after 21 chapters, is no longer canon-characterless. That was a pretty long streak, wasn't it?

**Chapter 22: The Last Straw-Hat**

* * *

Apparently, having the Logic-logic fruit doesn't mean that you're always right. After all, it only guides one to think logically, but logical reasoning does not always guarantee the correct solution. And this was something Mar was finding out the hard way.

Well, actually, it wasn't _that_ hard since unlike some other protagonists, Mar didn't have to get past a three-headed dog, a devilish snaring plant, a giant chess board or anything of that sort. Still, she did indeed feel every bit as taken-aback as that other protagonist when she discovered the true identity of a person she thought was somebody else, wasn't.

What Mar was really having trouble accepting _now_ however, was that the eccentric Disinfector, whom she had been traveling with for the last few days was actually THE Trafalgar Law himself.

I shouldn't have to explain why Mar might feel somewhat star-struck with the idea of Law present. Mar is a sixteen-year old girl, and it's _freaking Trafalgar Law_, c'mon.

Anyway, back to the main event:

The cannon-balls fired by Squall's armada had been halted midair after they entered in the Law's blue light-dome, and now remained suspended harmlessly high above the island.

But the Disinfector/Law was not done with them yet. With a grunt of effort and a strange hand motion, his "Room" expanded even further. Mar's eyes widened as the area increased until it engulfed even the waters offshore of the island.

Waters in which the armada of the New Heart Pirates were anchored.

Mar had previously wondered how the Disinfector had managed to sink the marine ships that had come after The Sunny. But now, having witnessed by just how much more the doctor had mastered his devil-fruit powers, it was _obvious_.

She also knew enough to expect what was coming next.

The hazard-suited man made another strange hand motion, and instantly, multiple explosions rocked every one of the attacking pirate ships.

"_Shit..."_ blurted the commander of said ships.

"As the mermaid said, Squall," Law said menacingly, as the blue dome ebbed away into nothingness and their ships began sinking from their own transposed weapon-fire. "You, and what armada?"

* * *

Mr. Garreth Suesse's gun-club colleagues would not have been impressed to see him at the moment. The reason? He was wildly running down the street with his gun out and his finger on the trigger. Obviously he wasn't paying attention to his gun safety, but cut the man some slack, his daughter had just been taken from him again.

By the time he had caught up with the rest of the crew, however, said daughter was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Mar?" he demanded of Gurnarde and Walker, who were busy making sure Squall was having a bad time. Squall had earlier made a very credible attempt to flee and had found out rather belatedly that Fishman Karate worked every bit as well as Merman Combat when it came to nullifying the advantage of his devil-fruit.

"Oh the captain? Where _did_ she go?" mused Gurnarde distractedly.

The mermaid hadn't been paying attention. In fact, she had been rather engrossed with complaining to Walker about the Disinfector hogging all the New Heart Pirate kills and taking out her subsequent displeasure on Squall.

Fortunately, her taciturn sibling was a little more observant. "Little hunam captain is being at ship with doktor-hunam," Walker spoke up.

Mr. Suesse nearly exploded in fatherly panic. "You mean Mar's been hurt?"

"Actually, it was the inverse, I believe."

"The Disinfector? Really?"

"Indeed, surprising, isn't it?"

"Yeah," replied Mr. Suesse. "I was beginning to think he was a robot that didn't bleed."

Gurnarde who was herself covered in blood and disturbingly nonplussed about it, smiled. "I concur. I wouldn't worry too much, however. I doubt it was anything grave."

* * *

"_Sunny_, please stop screaming! I can't think and I need to think because this is bad oh gawd how did this happen and what I am going to do?"

The ship's-ghost was freaking out. Mar wasn't doing any better herself, despite her attempts to be logical about the whole thing.

To understand why, we need to go back in time a bit.

Now as you know, The Disinfector a.k.a. Trafalgar Law had finished wiping out the entire New Heart Pirate armada. You would have expected him to have followed up on this with kicking Squall's ass, but it didn't happen that way because as I mentioned before, Squall had then attempted to escape. By the time Gurnarde and Walker had intercepted and shown him what a bad idea _that_ was, Mar had decided that based on what was going on, she was better off not seeing what would happen next. That was also the moment when she realised that the Disinfector was gone.

She just managed to spot him a little distance away, walking very quickly towards the direction of the _Sunny_, the reclaimed katana _Shusui_ in hand.

"Disinfector?" she called out after him.

But he didn't stop.

Some gut instinct told Mar she should follow. The man had finally revealed his identity to everyone, she wouldn't put it past him to leave them suddenly. And she didn't want that to happen.

By the time she managed to get on board the _Sunny _however, the deck was empty, except for the black sword that had been left on deck.

Mar had spent a few moments eyeing _Shusui_ and wondering why Law had bothered to reclaim Zoro's invaluable sword from Squall only to dump it carelessly there, when the _Sunny_ started screaming.

"_Sunny,_ what's wrong?" Mar winced at the mental cacophony.

The ship's ghost was barely coherent, but Mar did manage to make out the single word that told her where to go. She ran to infirmary, and that was where she discovered Disinfector, collapsed on the floor.

Which brings us back to where we left off.

"What do I do? Call for help? Maybe I can..."

"...et syringe..."

"W-what?" Mar whirled around. The Disinfector was struggling to get up, but something was clearly wrong with him and he seemed to be having trouble breathing.

"...filled syringe... top left drawer..."

Mar nearly turned the contents of the aforementioned drawer upside down before she found it.

"Is this it?" she asked, holding it out.

The Disinfector responded by snatching it out of her hands. _His_ hands were shaking as he tore off one of his gloves and positioned the needle over a vein.

"What's wrong with—"

"—steady my hand!" ordered the doctor.

Mar did as she was told, trying to avert her eyes from the business end of the medical instrument. She hated needles. So instead she focused on the hand she was helping to steady while the Disinfector administered the contents of the syringe to himself.

It was a distinctive hand, heavily tattooed, and for some strange reason, it seemed familiar. It was then when Mar finally remembered she had seen it before. A few days ago, to be exact.

* * *

_As Mar fell down the slanting deck of the Sunny, she saw the Disinfector extend his hand to her. With the last of her strength, she reached out and grabbed it. There was a ripping sound, and Mar once again found herself falling, a torn-off glove in her hand and the Disinfector outstretched hand now too far away to reach her._

"_Damnit!" Mar could hear the Disinfector swear to himself as she hurtled to her death._

_Just before she hit the railing, there was a blue light, and then— pain and darkness._

* * *

A memory that had been knocked out of her mind thanks to her concussion had returned.

"Now I understand!" Mar said aloud. "It was _you!_ You saved me from falling off the _Sunny_ when we fought Imba!"

The Disinfector had finished whatever medical treatment it was he had given himself and had wordlessly slumped to the floor again. Belatedly, Mar realised her timing was inappropriate and decided to wait until his gasping and convulsing ceased.

"Er... a-are you ok now? Were you poisoned or something?"

For many moments there was no response. Then finally, a single word: "No." Disinfector pulled himself up into a sitting position with the wall of the infirmary as support. He was still shaky.

"The cardiac arrhythmia was due to excessive pulmonary exertion," he explained.

Mar stared at him blankly.

Even in his state, the Disinfector did not spare her his trademark "what an idiot" stare.

"My. Heart. Malfunctioned," he dumbed down for her, and began fumbling with his visored helmet, muttering something about it being hard to breathe in. "I pushed it too far with with that last island-wide 'room'."

"What's wrong with it? Your heart, I mean."

He must have been feeling better, because he replied in a disconcertingly casual tone: "Bastard ran it though with my nodachi twenty years ago. Damn thing hasn't been the same since."

Mar was going to respond to this startling revelation, but she promptly forgot what she had intended to say because the Disinfector had chosen that very moment to take his helmet off.

One look at him permanently banished any doubt that this was the man himself. Sure, the years had left their mark on him: his black hair was now longer and liberally streaked with grey, and there were lines on his now-gaunt face that made him look weathered and worn. At the present, the pallor of his skin was extremely pale and his lips were tinged with blue (probably because of his heart-problem), but even in his current condition, neither time nor hardship could take away the intensity of his slaty grey eyes and commanding gaze—

"Are you quite done yet?" interrupted Law in annoyance.

With much embarrassment Mar realised that she had been staring at him for the past minute or so. "Sorry! Sorry! It's just that I thought you were Tony-Tony Chopper.."

"Didn't I already tell you he was dead?" Law snapped.

Mar cringed.

"Well it was the way you said it. Normally you're kinda emotionless but at that time it was different. It sounded almost... _personal,_ so I thought you might have meant it figuratively. And then I thought that made sense because you seemed to know so much about the _Sunny_ like Chopper would and well... yeah.

"...I read too many story books, don't I?" she finished lamely.

Law shook his head. "That Logic-Logic fruit is wasted on you. _Think!_ If I had been Dr. Chopper, I would have had to default back into a reindeer during my fight with Imba, wouldn't I?."

Mar stared at him for half a moment and face-palmed. "I didn't think of that. But well... you said that you were a Straw-Hat pirate just now. I suppose you just said it to mislead Squall but I fell for it so I got on the wrong track."

"No."

"Sorry?"

"Every word I said back there was true."

"How—?" then Mar cut herself off. "Oh! Sorry! Sorry! I know I promised I wouldn't ask you about it."

Law shrugged wearily.

"Cat's out of the bag. No point keeping it secret anymore."

* * *

_**Twenty Years Ago...**_

_"...we're almost there. Just bear it a little longer..."_

_'Cat-Burglar' Nami, with one arm in a sling, was feverishly attempting to staunch the bleeding from Usopp's side __in the sick-bay of the Thousand Sunny,_. With the loss of their doctor, it had been left to her to tend to the wounded.

_"Thanks, Nami." The sniper attempted to smile from where he lay supine. He was the only conscious one out of the rest of the casualties crammed into the little room._

_"Nami-chan! We're approaching the Calm Belt!" Brook's voice carried from the outside._

_"Usopp—"_

_"Go help Franky and Brook. You're the navigator, they'll need you. I'll keep an eye on the others. I can handle it. It'll be fine."_

_Nami was no doctor, but even she could tell that Usopp was lying. But she bit back her tears, nodded and made her way to the bridge._

_"We're all set," she could hear Franky's voice saying to Brook. "It was a good thing we grabbed those hull pieces from the _Shadow Hind's_ wreck when we did. That Drake guy's ship was a former marine ship, so the sea-stone lining should help hide us from the sea-kings."_

_"That is good, Franky-san. We will need every advantage we can get. My heart sinks at the thought of sailing the Sunny across the Calm Belt a second time. Even if I don't have a..." at this the skeleton trailed off and sighed heavily, leaving the joke unfinished._

_As the oldest and most experienced of all the remaining crew, it had been Brook who had stepped up to the plate to take command, but the toll it had been taking on him was heavy._

_"We can do this," Nami added, announcing her presence. "Everyone is counting on us! Ready?"_

_"Wait!" came the cry from Franky, who had a pair of spyglasses in his functioning small hand. "There's something up ahead."_

_"It's a submarine."_

_And it was. Bobbing on the surface just before the invisible line that separated the ocean from the Calm Belt, was a small yellow submarine. The top hatch was open, and sitting beside it, patiently waiting with a white flag of truce, was Trafalgar Law. He saw them approaching, and called out the moment they were in hearing range._

_"I thought you'd come here for help. I came to warn you. The Amazon Lily was Buster Called last night. The Kuja have been exterminated."_

_"No!" Nami fell to her knees in despair. Their last hope for finding a safe harbour was now gone._

_Then Law spoke up again. "You guys need a doctor?"_

* * *

_The Straw-Hats were preparing to bury their dead._

_Law watched as Nami filled the coffins with personal effects. Cigarettes for Sanji. Robin's favourite sun-glasses._

_A little distance away, Franky silently welded the shards of Zoro's broken swords together for his headstone._

_"Mr. Sogeking, you're still recovering from major surgery. You shouldn't be straining yourself."_

_"Let me do this. I have to do this," Usopp, who was stamping out the epitaphs, replied stubbornly. "I'm not going to be the only one who didn't do anything for them."_

_Law decided to leave him be._

_The melancholy tones of a violin drifted from the other side of the tiny rock island. Law found himself walking to where Brook was playing, sightless eyes fixed at some point on the horizon._

_"Bink's Sake?" the doctor asked, identifying the song._

_"It seemed fitting farewell to true friends," the skeleton replied. "Speaking of friends: Law-san, let me thank you again for coming to our aid."_

_Law shook his head. "I'm not a friend. And I was still too late to save those three."_

_"We already knew it was too late even before you arrived. We were just hoping against hope."_

_"You're a lot more composed about this than the rest of your crew, Mr. Soul King."_

_"This is not my first time losing nakama," the skeleton confided. "Although it is still hard as ever. Losing your crew is never easy. Is it, doctor?"_

_Law looked up sharply at this._

_"Pardon me for asking, Law-san, but... why are you here, and alone? What happened to your crew?"_

_The dark doctor turned away and gazed out towards the ocean._

_"They're with Madelyn."_

_"I had thought she had declined to help us in favour of stopping Kid?"_

_"They don't know I'm here... I left without her knowledge."_

_Brook stared at Law in confusion._

_"It's Madelyn." It took Law a deep breath. "She's not what she appears to be. And I suspect she's the one who manipulated the events that led up Straw-Hat Luffy's death."_

* * *

"Hah! I knew it!" Mar declared, interrupting Law's narration.

The man in question shot her a glare for breaking his flow.

"Erm... sorry. So... how did she manage to manipulate the _Marines_? She was a wanted pirate, wasn't she?"

"How do _you_ manage to warp reality to conform to logic? Same thing: a very dangerous devil-fruit."

* * *

_"...you're saying Madelyn has the power to make people's desires come true?" Brook sounded slightly disbelieving. The acting captain had opted to continue their conversation on board the Sunny. He was well aware that the other three grieving Straw-Hats would be likely to do something reckless if told such an emotionally-charged piece of information._

_"Or something very close to it. You met her once before, didn't you notice it?"_

_"Actually, I can barely remember what exactly happened when we met Madelyn, other that we were all very taken with her." Brook frowned as he said this. "But I can't remember why, exactly."_

_"You've just described the past month of my life." Law said, his voice suddenly growing harsh. "I don't know what kind of devil-fruit she has, but she has this aura about her that makes everyone gravitate around her. When you're in her proximity, it feels like anything is possible, all your dreams can come true, as long as you follow her will. And you just stop thinking and blindly follow along."_

_"For a time, I was like that: out of my mind. Then one day, __a bit after what happened in Loguetown, _I just woke up and I could see everything crystal clear. I could see her for what she really was. But it was just me, everyone else in my crew was still obsessed with her. I knew that I had to leave before whatever control she had over me returned."

_"That explains why you are here. But how do you know she was responsible for Luffy...?"_

_A dark look appeared over Law's face. "My memory is fuzzy, but we ran into the Kid Pirates before all this went down. Oh we didn't fight," he added, anticipating Brook's question. "In fact, Kid was all over Madelyn and threw a party for us. I remember Bepo was scared as hell because Kid wouldn't stop smiling nicely and it was freaking _unnatural_._

_"Anyway, during the party the topic of Mr. Straw-Hat and the race to find One Piece came up. You Straw-Hats were in the lead. Both our crews knew it. Unless something happened to delay you, you were probably going to get to One Piece before us._

_"Just as we parted ways, Kid said that Madelyn was such a worthy opponent he wished that there was some way of taking Straw-Hat Luffy out of the running so that it could be just our two crews vying for the title. I didn't think anything of it then..."_

_"...but if Madelyn has the power to make dreams come true..." Brook said, suddenly understanding._

_Law nodded in confirmation. "In hindsight, it seems so clear."_

* * *

"Unbelievable... cold-bloodedness! Was Luffy really her brother? That... that monster!" Mar was almost incoherent in her outrage.

"That monster," Law agreed, looking down at his ungloved hand and the letters that were tattooed there.

"So what did the Straw-Hats do when they found out Madelyn was behind it all? Surely they wouldn't have let it stand and gone after her!"

"No doubt if they knew they would have done that. But they were at a fraction of their full strength and Madelyn was surrounded by her own crew— not just my original Heart Pirates, but other new members she recruited as well. It would have been suicide for the Straw-Hats to take them on.

"Also, Mr. Soul-King decided against telling them, because he was of the opinion that throwing their lives away in that manner was not what Straw-Hat would have wanted. It didn't matter after a time, because after we buried Nico Robin, Roronoa and Black-Leg, we received a very important piece of information."

"Which was...?"

"Dr. Tony-Tony Chopper was still alive."

* * *

_"Mr. Sniper is well on the way to recovery and I took off Ms. Nami's cast yesterday. Looks like you will no longer need my services soon, Mr. Soul-King."_

_Captain Brook, busy studying a map and planning their next move, thanked the doctor. "Thank you, Law-san. Your continued presence is of course, always welcome, but we'll be happy to take you anywhere you want to go. If you do want to go anywhere, of course."_

_Law smiled wryly. It had been two weeks since Law had come aboard, and an odd friendship had sprung up between the dark doctor and skeleton musician._

_"That's a well-diplomatic way of saying 'I know you don't have anywhere to go but you're welcome to stay with us for as long as you like'."_

_"It is," admitted Brook._

_Law shrugged. "I'll think about it. Maybe I'll get used to this place, klabautermanns and all."_

_"The Sunny's klabautermann showed itself to you?"_

_"Made me jump too. I've heard of those things, but my own ship never developed one. Makes me a bit envious—"_

_"Everyone! Come look at this!" Nami's voice called from the galley. Both men quickly rose and went to see what was going on._

_Franky, Usopp and Nami were crowded around the galley table, upon which the latest copy of the newspaper had been laid out. The headline of the frontpage screamed: VICE-ADMIRAL DALMATIAN COMMENTS ON IMPEL-DOWN RAID", but that wasn't the main point of interest for the assembled Straw-Hats. They only had eyes for one thing: the picture of the marine featured below it._

_"I'm telling you, that's Chopper's guard point!" Nami insisted, stabbing her finger at what looked like a round ball of pale fur speckled with dots, which was guarding against a group of attacking pirates._

_"Is that Chopper?" Brook echoed._

_"No, that's not Chopper," Usopp said, frowning. "It's a marine vice-admiral. A dog zoan by the looks of it."_

_"No way! How did he manage to copy Chopper's defense point?"_

_"It's obvious, isn't it?" Law spoke up._

_Nami clapped a hand over her mouth in horror. " The marines have Chopper!"_

_"And for them to have the secrets of his Rumble technology and make use of it so quickly, it's most likely he was alive to give the fine details to them on how to use it."_

_"Ch-chopper's still alive? And we didn't know?" Usopp looked sick._

_"And we didn't try to rescue him from the Marines!" Franky broke down in emotional tears. "What kind of nakama are we?"_

_"Everyone, get ahold of yourselves!" Brook ordered. The former musician of the crew had been forced to forgo his carefree personality for a significantly more serious one since he had taken up the captain's post. "Self-reproach won't help now! What's important now is deciding what we should do!"_

_"What is there to think about? We need to rescue him!" Nami declared, banging the table._

_"But do we even know where to go?" wondered Usopp._

_"Vegapunk," Franky said immediately. "They must have taken Chopper to the research labs where he works. Only that man could make sense of Chopper's work."_

_"Then we need to find out where that place is and how we can get in," said Brook, his expression hardening._

_"Agreed," chorused the crew, and each of them laid their hand on the table in pledge._

_"You guys are serious." Law could not help but be surprised at how the crew had suddenly transformed from a listless, grieving crew into a fiercely determined force. He had missed the first time when it had been their captain's neck on the line, but now it looked as though a smaller scale replay was underway. "And suicidal."_

_"Law-san, I understand if you think this endeavor foolhardy," began Brook. "But you understand, we can't abandon our nakama. If you would prefer not to be part of this..."_

_"Hell no!" declared Law, placing his own tattooed hand onto the table. "I'm in."_

* * *

"But you said Chopper's dead," Mar said slowly, her tone subdued at the slow-burning horror of her deductions. "So the rescue effort... failed? Everyone got killed? And Chopper died alone in captivity?"

"No," said Law slowly. "That wasn't how it happened. Dr. Chopper did manage to escape from the Marines, only to die afterwards. And—"

Mar's eyes widened at his next confession.

"—I was the one who killed him."

* * *

**End of Chapter 22**

* * *

**A/N: I was surprised to find that r****eader Otaku Ninja recommended Marie D. Suesse and the Mystery New Pirate Age! On TVTropes's fanfic rec page. It was a nice surprise though, so thank you!**

**Incidentally, reader Drago Pirate asked me if I had come up with any drawings for this fanfic. As a matter of fact, I have, but I rather underestimated the popularity of this fic and assumed no one would be interested. Since I appear to be mistaken and people actually want to see what Mar and crew look like, I've scanned in some sketches of Mar, Gurnarde and Walker. Link should be on my profile page. Enjoy, and consider them thanks for all your wonderful support, feedback and recommendations! **


	23. The Surgeon of Fortune

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!**

A Deconstruction, which true to One Piece tradition, **contains many flashbacks in which disturbingly horrific events occur**. **Nothing graphic, **but that doesn't mean it's any less disturbing, really.

If you're a sensitive reader, you might want to consider that content warning. But if you've been reading this story so far, it's the 23rd chapter already, so I guess you would be expecting this by now...

* * *

_O Fortune,_

_variable_

_as the moon,_

_always dost thou_

_wax and wane._

_Detestable life,_

_first dost thou mistreat us,_

_and then,_

_whimsically,_

_thou heedest our desires._

_- 'O Fortuna', Carmina Burana_

* * *

**Chapter 23: The Surgeon of Fortune** _  
_

* * *

"Just get this through your thick skull, girl. If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't still be sitting here telling you my story."

Since Law's cracker of a disturbing confession, Mar had suddenly started glancing around worriedly and inching away from him. Law wasn't amused.

"W-well..."

The older man sighed in mock patience.

"Girl, if I wanted you dead, given your poor survival skills, you'd have been dead long ago without any action on my part. Probably within a few hours of your bumbling about in Sabaody. I certainly wouldn't have gone out of my way to save your neck. Multiple times too, I might add."

Mar eyed Law's bloody arm where he had been injured in the earlier fight with Squall. "Actually why'd you even... never mind."

"No, that's actually a good question that I'm surprised you haven't asked yet. We'll get to that later. But you wanted to know what happened. So for now, just shut up and listen."

* * *

_"If we trigger the diversion here, the security team will be preoccupied with protecting the vault and we can take the opportunity to sneak in and find our true goal: Chopper."_

_Brook scrutinised the plans of Vegapunk's lab and hmm'ed. Franky, who had been laying out their plan of action, was waiting for his input, while Law and Usopp looked on. Nami was sitting quietly in the corner, combing through sheaves of information.._

_"One thing though: if one of us gets recognised, no diversion is going to keep them from realising it's Chopper we're after and not Vegapunk's newest superweapon."_

_"Does that mean we need disguises?" wondered Usopp._

_This line of discussion was abruptly derailed when Nami gave a little exclamation that immediately drew attention to herself._

_"Law, you're in the paper!"_

_Law raised an eyebrow. "I don't remember doing anything newsworthy recently."_

_"Actually we should have noticed this earlier. I was looking at the paper for more clues on Chopper and it's in the follow-up article of the one with Dalmatian's guard point picture."_

_Nami began to read from the article:_

_"...Monkey D. Madelyn's brazen raid on Impel Down was supposed to have been vengeance for the execution of her brother Monkey D. Luffy. However, our sources indicate that this might __actually _have been a front for her true purpose.

_"According to our correspondent, prior to raiding the infamous gaol, Madelyn had demanded that a member of her crew be freed. However, Vice-Admiral Dalmatian, who is in charge of the auxiliary defense for Impel Down, insisted that the wanted crew member, the Supernova Trafalgar Law, was never in Impel Down to begin with..."_

_Law stood up suddenly. "She did WHAT?"_

_"Madelyn seems to be determined to get you back."_

_"She wouldn't lift a finger to help Luffy, but for you she took on the World Government... wow."_

"_'Wow', does not adequately cover it," growled Law, his cool composure cracking. "Suicidal and selfish is more like it! If she got any of them killed, I'll..." he vowed and paused, as if a sudden thought had just occurred to him. Then he seemed to calm down very abruptly, which was even more terrifying in a way._

"_You guys go on, there's something I need to prepare."_

_And then he left the room, leaving the speechless crew to wonder what had just happened._

* * *

"_Law-san, you need to tell us what's going on."_

"_Mr. Soul-King, don't tell me what to do—" the doctor snapped, then stopped short. "Don't take it personally, Brook. Never liked being ordered around to begin with, but especially after what happened with Madelyn..."_

"_It's all very well, Law-san, but please let us know why you've suddenly holed yourself up in the infirmary."_

_"Finishing **this**. I haven't just been moping around your ship for the past two weeks, you know," Law said, holding up a vial of some strange liquid. "I was studying the material your Dr. Chopper left in his office. He is a genius. Did you know he was working on a cure for every known disease in the world?"_

_"And what does that have to do with that?" asked Brook, a skeletal finger pointing at the vial._

_"I based this on some of his research. It's still in its experimental stages, but I'm hoping that this thing can negate the mind-clouding effects of Madelyn's power."_

_"I didn't realise such a thing was even possible."_

_Law just shrugged in response. "You'd be surprised at what you can do when you try hard enough."_

_Brook had been in the company of the doctor long enough to know this was all leading up to something._

_"Law-san, what are you thinking of doing, exactly?"_

_Law was silent for a moment. "I'm going back to my ship. No because I'm backing out of the rescue attempt—" he added hurriedly, seeing the expression on Brook's face, "—but if I can get my crew free from Madelyn's influence, you'll have a whole other pirate crew to help break into Vegapunk's facility. Which means you'll have a far better chance of saving that doctor of yours."_

_"Going back puts you at risk of falling under Madelyn's control again. And what if your 'cure' doesn't work?"_

_"Then you'll be a man short," Law smiled grimly. "Mr. Soul-King, come up with a Plan B. If things work out, the Heart Pirates will meet you at our prearranged location by sunset in three days. And if we don't... well, give me up for lost and carry out your plans without me."_

* * *

_"Fare well, Law-san," Brooks said the next morning as Law prepared to depart in his little submarine. "You're a brave man."_

_"No," replied Law, pulling the brim of his hat low."I'm not just doing this for you Straw-Hats. __I'm a pirate captain, and t_hat's my original crew over there in Madelyn's clutches. I have no intention of leaving them to her whims. Well that, and t _he thought of that parasitic mange ordering my hand-picked crew-members around is **seriously** pissing me off."_

_"Super! I've got the plans ready for your return, Bro!" Franky called out from the top deck._

_"You'd better not get killed, you hear?" Nami's bossy voice resounded._

_"Ms. Cat Burglar, I've got too much to do to die just yet," Law responded matter-of-factly._

_"We'll see you Heart Pirates at the meeting point. Good luck!" said Usopp as he waved._

_"Mm." Law nodded as he made his way to the hatch of the little submarine._

"_Law!" Brook called out just as the doctor was about to close the hatch behind him. "No matter what happens after this, we will always consider you one of our nakama."_

_"Hang on a minute—"_

_But he had already closed the hatch, and it was too much bother to open it again to protest and correct them._

_Law sighed in exasperation and set off without further comment._

* * *

"That was the last time I ever saw those four."

"So does that mean you don't know what happened to the rest of the crew after that?" Mar asked, wide-eyed.

"I said it was the last time I _saw_ them. And the _Thousand Sunny_ as well... until that day you showed up in Sabaody, that is."

"Then what about Chopper and meeting up for the rescue?"

Law grimaced as if reliving a particularly unpleasant memory. "We were so close. Damn it all. We were so damn close..."

* * *

_"Law! Oh Law it IS you! Where have you been? I've been worried sick! How could you just go off like that without telling anyone?"_

_Madelyn, even in her state of distress, was a breath-taking sight to behold. Her striking profile, with arms outstretched and ready to receive a certain blue-black-haired lover of hers, was tantalizingly outlined against the setting sun. Her dark midnight hair flared in a silk cloud behind her, her large umber orbs were flashing in emotion as her tears of relief, like perfect diamonds nestling in her tear ducts—_

—Oi!

I was kidding! I was kidding! Now stop spraying me with that stuff!

Sheesh, as if being made redundant by Trafalgar Law's flashback narration for most of the last chapter and this one wasn't bad enough for this narrator, the author really needs a sense of humour as well.

ANYWAY, to skip all the sickenly purple prose, I'm just going to have to say that well, after Law left the Straw-Hats he made it back to the Heart Pirates, and was joyously greeted by both his original crew and a new batch of suckers who had deigned to join the ursurper in the meantime. And _Her,_ of course.

It should also tell you how much self-control Law had, because instead of lopping her head off and screaming DIE DIE DIE as would have been natural to do to someone who had kept you in a mind-controlled trance for months, Law simply said:

_"Hello, Madelyn," and neatly side-stepped the sobbing girl as she threw herself at him._

_Not expecting his evasion, Madelyn almost barreled into the ground but managed to recover in time. In fact, she still somehow managed to make her stumble look graceful._

_"Doctor Law!" glad cries came from other members of the crew. "We almost thought that the World Government had you!"_

_Keeping a careful eye on Madelyn, Law moved towards the members of his original crew. "Bepo, Shachi, Penguin, Jean Bart... all of you. Are you all here?"_

_"Yes we're— EH?"_

_"—I can't believe she took you guys and raided Impel Down—"_

_"HEY! What's that?"_

_"—that was reckless!"_

_"Doctor Law, what are you doing?"_

If you have been paying attention to this story so far, you will have probably figured out what Law was busy doing while this distracting conversation was going on. Yes, Clever Reader, you did guess it right, Law WAS spraying the members of his crew with his experimental cure as he talked.

_A confused murmuring rose from the assorted crew members as the chemical began to take effect._

_"Law, what's going on?" Madelyn was equally confused as the rest of the crew. "Why'd you just spray them with... what is that anyway? Perfume?"_

_Law ignored her._

_"My head... feels funny," mumbled Bepo._

_"Me too... what's going on?"_

_"...can't remember... it's like I just woke up!"_

_"C-captain?" Jean Bart's deep voice rumbled, his hand rubbing his temples as if he were having a migrane._

_Madelyn responded. "Yes! I'm here! Are you all sick? Don't worry, Doctor Law's back and he's going to heal you all! Law! Heal them!"_

_"I wasn't talking to you." There was a willful, almost furious tone in Jean Bart's voice. "I was talking to the Captain!"_

_Madelyn gave a nervous little laugh. "What do you mean by that, Jean-Luc? I'm your captain, you're just delirious from this sudden disease—"_

_"My name is Jean Bart!" snarled the huge pirate furiously. Madelyn's eyes widened and she took a step back._

_"Captain? Captain Law?" Bepo was still shaking his head, but there was also clarity and awareness in the talking bear's eyes. "Captain! You're back!"_

_Law smiled in triumph. His cure had worked. Which was a good thing, because being called just "Doctor Law" by Bepo instead of "Captain" was beginning to get on his nerves._

_"Captain, what's going on?" asked Penguin as he looked around, bewildered._

_"Yeah, and why do we have so many ships sailing with us? And who are these new guys on board?" Shachi chimed in. This was followed with a chorus of agreement from the rest of the awakened crew._

_"B-but I'm the captain now? Law! What's the meaning of this?" Madelyn turned to the doctor, with an anguished expression that would have melted the hearts of lesser men. But Trafalgar Law was not one of those lesser men._

_"It means your nightmare has ended, Madelyn. It's over."_

_"N-nightmare? But Law... what did I do?"_

_"You mean besides robbing everyone of their free will and minds?"_

_Madelyn opened her mouth to deny his accusations, but stopped herself. When she finally spoke again her voice was much more subdued. "I didn't mean to... I just couldn't help it... my devil-fruit just works that way..." she trailed off miserably and bit her lip, then burst into an impassioned plea:_

_"Law, I just wanted you to be happy! You were always so busy with your research and I thought you would like it if you had more time to focus on your medical work and leave all the leadership duties to me—"_

**"You thought I'd be happy with you stealing my crew, usurping my position and relegating me to the role of trophy consort?"**

_That shut her up. Behind him, Law could hear angry mutters from the liberated Heart Pirates. They were beginning to remember the events of the past month or so._

_"I'm sorry," sniffled Madelyn. "I wasn't thinking. But Law... I really meant well. I wanted to help you achieve your dream. I just... I..."_

_"—murdered Straw-Hat Luffy. Your supposed brother." Law finished for her. "Yes I know what you did, Madelyn," he added, seeing the sudden look of panic on her face. "You don't understand a man's dream, do you? It's not about winning. It's not even about finding One Piece. It's about the race to the finish line._

_"There's no point in becoming the Pirate King if I win the title by default. And you... you took out my most respected rival in the most underhanded, lamest way imaginable! You disgust me."_

_"Law, please don't say that! Law! You're everything to me! I... I... love you."_

_"No you don't." Law countered coldly. "You're just a self-centered, monstrous, bitch who's obsessed with someone you only think you know."_

_The girl recoiled from his words as if they were fire._

_"I should cut out your heart for what you've done. But that would be more mercy than you deserve," Law continued venomously._

_"Captain Madelyn! Don't listen to him!"_

_Law looked away from Madelyn for a moment. "Ah yes, those other guys..."_

_The other, newly-recruited 'Heart Pirates' were amassing, and they were uniformly angry-faced as they backed up the sobbing girl-'captain'. One of them, a green-haired swordsman who seemed suspiciously similar to another certain green-haired swordsman from another crew, stepped forward with a threatening gesture._

_"Doctor Law, how can you speak to the captain like that? I, Roronoa D. Squall, wish to teach you a lesson on how to treat our Queen—AUGH!" He gagged as he inhaled Law's accurately aimed jet of spray._

_Law noted with disappointment that it was the last of his cure spray. It had been a shame that he hadn't had a time to synthesize more of it. It certainly would have come in handy now._

_"Wh-what's happening to me? What have you done? I... I... why am I here? What's going on? Where's my dojo?" the pirate swordsman seemed to be coming out of Madelyn's enthrallment. It also effectively stopped the angry horde, who stopped in a silent, confused mass._

_Out of the silence rose the plaintive voice of Madelyn. "L-Law... I never meant to hurt anyone. Least of all you. You're the one who gave me courage to go for what I wanted... all my life, I just wanted to be free, and loved for who I am, instead of my beauty and status and..."_

_"Yes Madelyn, it's all about you you and you isn't it?" Law interrupted coldly. Madelyn shrank at the intensity of his scornful gaze._

_"Do you want really want people to see you for what you are? Well... I can see who you are inside. And it's uglier than I could ever imagine."_

_Madelyn hung her head. "Are you going to kill me?"_

_"Death is too good for you, Madelyn. Live, and wallow in your own mess." Then turning to his real crew, he commanded: "Get the sub ready. Let's go. I have an appointment to keep."_

_"No! Law! Don't leave me!" Madelyn wept behind him. "I'll do anything you want! I'll change anything about me that you don't like. Just say what you want and it'll be done. Anything you wish... I-I'll make it happen!"_

_Law stopped short. As much as he despised the woman, he was a practical man and hadn't forgotten the tremendous possibilities of Madelyn's mysterious devil-fruit. "**Anything** I wish?" he turned, and fixed Madelyn with his piercing stare._

_Seeing hope, Madelyn sidled forward and gently put her hand on his forearm. "Yes... anything you wish, Law. For you, anything."_

_Law did not hesitate. "Then what I wish is that things were exactly the way they were before I met you. Straw-Hat would still be alive. The world would be right as it used to be instead of the crapsack it is now."_

_Madelyn hesitated. "I-I can't grant that..."_

_Law's face turned dark. "Then you know what I wish?" he snarled as he jerked his arm away from her, "**I WISH YOU WOULD GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!**"_

_There was a pindrop silence. Madelyn froze, then fell to her knees, shaking uncontrollably._

_"And that's that." Law turned to address the assembled new 'recruits'. "To the rest of you, you've been fooled, and joined this crew under false premises. For this time I'm not going to hold it against you. You're free to do whatever you please and I'll even leave you with Madelyn's ships." He gestured at Madelyn's vessels as he said this. "Do whatever you want with her, but get off my submarine. We Heart Pirates have somewhere else to be."_

_A cheer rose from the ranks of the original Heart Pirates._

_"Jean Bart, I want you to set a course to these coordinates at once. I made a promise with what's left of the Straw-Hat crew to join in on a daring raid, so I hope you're all in good fighting form."_

_"Aye aye Captain!"_

_Wait!" came a call from behind. Law turned to see the green-haired swordsman he had 'cured' holding out a familiar-looking sword. "This isn't mine. Why am I holding it? It's yours, isn't it?"_

_There was no mistaking the sword as Law's trademark nodachi, which in his previous flight from the crew, the doctor had been forced to leave behind._

_"You're mad, swordsman!" warned one of the other pirates. "That's 'The Surgeon of Death' there. He'll kill you right after you've given him his sword!"_

_"That's my business," retorted Squall. "He freed me from the dream, I am honour-bound to repay him in kind! Here," the swordsman said to Law, proffering the sword, "at least allow me to return your blade."_

"_Cooperate with the man who disrespected our Queen, Squall, and we will shoot you dead!" threatened the rest._

"_So be it," replied Squall defiantly."I will die with honour!"_

_A strange impulse overcame Law suddenly._

_"ROOM!"_

_The sphere of blue light filled the area, encompassing both Law and Squall._

"_Mr. Squall, I will be taking my sword now, and you have nothing to fear from those rabble, they won't be able to touch you."_

"_Thank you, Trafalgar Law."_

_It all happened in a single moment. Just as Law's hand reached for his nodachi, a gunshot rang out._

_"Captain Law!"_

_Blood was slowly dripping onto the metal deck of the submarine, much to the horror of the watching Heart Pirates._

_It wasn't the gun that had drawn the blood of the pirate captain. In fact, the bullet hadn't even touched the devil-fruit user, who had made good use of his powers to redirect it once it had entered his 'Room' space._

_What had drawn the blood was the naked blade of the nodachi that Squall had thrust right through Law's chest._

"_You must be wondering 'why?', Dr. Law," Squall whispered viciously, his helpful and friendly demeanour gone. "You thought you had 'cured' me, didn't you? Perhaps you should have considered whether I **wanted **__to be cured or not._

"_I was **happy** in Queen Madelyn's thrall. And you stole that from me, Doctor. So I wished to the Queen that you would have that one moment of weakness for me to teach you a lesson, and it has been granted."_

_Behind Squall, Madelyn stared at the both of them in horror, a hand over her mouth. Law met her gaze with cold scorn._

"_Even now... your powers... still manipulating me, Madelyn?"_

"_No! What have I... I didn't mean for this to happen... Law... LAW!"_

"_Forget this ingrate, My Queen! You have me! I will be your loyal subject forever!" Squall interrupted passionately._

_But Madelyn had turned and fled. Her sudden desertion distracted Squall, who released his grip on the nodachi._

_Law saw his chance. His 'Room' was still active around them, and as the ground came rushing up to meet him, Law called upon his devil-fruit powers to save his own life._

_Hand signs almost too fast to follow flashed. Somewhere on the opposite side of his 'Room', a bloodstained nodachi suddenly appeared and clanged to the ground. And for the first time ever, Dr. Trafalgar Law operated on his own failing heart as it was still beating._

_The split-second emergency surgery ended even before anyone else knew it had begun. The blue spherical light of the 'Room' faded just as he hit the ground._

_Except the ground had somehow turned into Bepo's soft white fur, which was now stained red._

_Dimly Law was aware that a fight had broken out on board and his original crew members were in the thick of it. But the world was falling away and there was no longer anything he could do about it._

* * *

_When Law became aware again, it was to the sound of hissing machines. He recognised the sound of the heart-lung machine in operation. The very same heart-lung machine on board **his** very own submarine, in fact._

This part of the story is a bit boring, so let's get it over with. Basically, Law drifted in and out of consciousness. And no, there were no snippets of meaningful overheard conversations during these spells worth repeating.

Finally there came a time when he stopped doing the drifting in-out thing and woke up for good. The first thing he realised was that the heart-lung machine was no longer running, and neither was he hooked up to it. The second thing he realised was that _he had a full beard._ This turned out to be a point of much distress to Law and had him struggling to sit up.

By the way, there is a saying that doctors make the worst patients. I should mention that this was definitely true for Law. Even though he should have known it was a perfectly stupid thing to do, what he did next was to remove the oxygen mask over his face and try and pull out the IV line attached to his arm.

I say 'try', but fortunately, he did not succeed, because a big furry hand stopped him.

"_Don't!"_

_Law's gaze travelled to the owner of said hand. At first he had thought it belonged to Bepo, but even his shaky vision could not mistake the colour of the fur._

_It was brown, not white._

* * *

"Chopper_,"_ gasped Mar, her hands over mouth.

"Yes," Law affirmed. "The original plan I agreed to with the Straw-Hats was to have Chopper board our sub in the rescue just in case I needed to give him medical treatment. I never quite expected it to work the other way round.

"But that wasn't the only thing that didn't go according to plan..."

* * *

_"So they got you out," Law said once he had gotten over the shock of finding that he had been drawn back to life by the very same Straw-Hat he had planned to rescue. "Where's Mr. Soul King the others?"_

_"Brook and everyone's supposed to meet us here. B-but they're not here yet... they're... probably lying low for now."_

"_How long?"_

"_You've been unconscious for two weeks."_

_Law looked over Chopper searchingly. In truth, he was expecting the former captive to be in bad shape, but in fact, Chopper seemed relatively unscathed, except for—_

_"What's that thing on the back of your neck?" Law asked abruptly, eyes narrowed._

_The 'thing' in question looked like half a slave collar, but instead of going round the neck, it seemed to be fused along the nape._

_A haunted look appeared in Chopper's eyes. "They called it a puppet-controller implant. Th-they put on me... t-to test... it-it makes me do whatever they tell me to." The traumatised reindeer started shaking as the memories of his time as a test subject resurfaced._

"_Hey..." Law was not the type to be comforting, but as a doctor he recognised the signs post-traumatic stress and instinctively responded. But the moment after he tried to get up however, he crashed to the floor, gasping for breath._

"_What the hell...?"_

_The action seemed to snap Chopper back into his 'Doctor' mode. At least, he stopped falling apart and bundled his patient back into bed instead. "What are you doing getting out of bed? Don't push yourself! Whatever you did to your own heart earlier saved your life, but there was already irreversible damage!"_

_Law's hand subconsciously went over his bandaged chest. "How bad?_

_Chopper told him, and Law's face grew darker and darker at the grim news._

_The reindeer-doctor didn't have go very deeply into details. As a surgeon himself, Law understood the consequences only too well._

* * *

_Law scowled as he applied sticking plaster to his chin. It disturbed him that he had managed to nick himself while shaving. He was supposed to be Trafalgar Law, a surgeon famed for his deft, dextrous hands that never cut what he didn't intend to._

_Of course, now he was Trafalgar Law, recuperating captain of the Heart Pirates, about to address his crew for the first time since his injury. Hell be damned if he was going show up with a disgusting, unkept, **beard**._

"_Tell me how it happened," said Law to his gathered crew, once his face was free of unregulated facial hair._

_Bepo and Jean Bart, with occasional interruptions from the rest of the crew, told of their battle and escape from the false Heart Pirates._

_"We thought you were dead for sure, Captain, but you came to a few times and each time you kept saying we needed to meet with the Straw Hats no matter what."_

_At first the crew had been more concerned with saving their captain's life. However, on hooking Law up to the life support and realising that they still needed a skilled doctor, the crew eventually decided to heed their captain's orders._

_"The Straw-Hats filled us in on your original plan. Since you were stabilised on the CPB and the fastest way for us to get a doctor for you was to go rescue the Straw-Hats' doctor, we took a gamble."_

_"Some gamble," Law commented, wondering how the Straw-Hats must have reacted to him showing up to the meeting as a near-corpse. Well, at least he hadn't missed the meeting itself, so no one could complain about him not keeping his word._

_As it turned out, the opportune arrival of the Heart Pirates had ensured the success of 'Operation Rescue Chopper Superplan 4B (Underwater Strategy Special!)'._

_The plan, which necessitated the use of the Straw-Hats' little submarine as well, fortunately turned out to be less complicated than the name it had been given. It had culminated in the 'Shark Submerge' leading the Marine pursuit in one direction while the Heart Pirates' sub, with the escaped Chopper on board, made a clean getaway._

_"The Straw-Hats insisted that Dr. Chopper board our sub in the escape so he could treat you as soon as possible. They were really worried about you, Captain."_

"_Hm. And you are sure they were supposed to meet us here?"_

"_Yes."_

**"_So where are they?"_**

* * *

"For days we waited, but the Straw-Hats never came for Chopper," Law narrated, his eyes half-shut as Mar listened.

"By the end of the third week we were contemplating coming out of hiding and actively searching for them, unfortunately there was a singular complication that kept us from doing so..."

* * *

_"That puppet-controller on Chopper has a tracking beacon installed? You mean all this time that thing could have brought the Marines down on us—"_

_"—the signal doesn't penetrate underwater, captain. And we've been careful to only surface where there's rock cover or magnetic fields that will keep the beacon from working properly," Jean Bart assured._

_"And deactivating it wasn't an option?" Law pointed out._

_"It's got anti-tampering safeguards. If they're anything like normal slave-collars...BOOM."_

_"I see," It had been so long since Sabaody that Law had almost forgotten that Jean Bart, being a former slave, would know all about these things._

_"So the only way to get rid of it is by surgical means, like I did for you."_

"_Could you?" Chopper looked up hopefully._

_Law frowned as he studied the results from the scanners. "The implant seems to be quite embedded in your nervous system. If I operate, it'll be extremely tricky."_

_Chopper gulped. "Please! I have to see Nami, Usopp, Franky and Brook again. We have to go out there and find them! And to do that we need to get rid of that thing first."_

_"You are aware that t__he slightest mistake on my part could kill you?"_

_Chopper looked up to him with trusting eyes. "You can do it, Dr. Law. I believe in you."_

* * *

"_Captain... it's been hours..."_

"_Keep going!"_

"_Captain—"_

**"_Shut up and keep going!"_**

_Scared, Shachi and Penguin kept their heads down and resumed their futile resuscitation attempts, while Bepo shrank in the corner, unsure of what to do._

_Jean Bart however, did._

"_Captain, it's no use. We need to stop."_

_Law shot him a murderous glare._

_But once upon a time Jean Bart had been a pirate captain too, and he held his ground._

"_He's gone, Captain. That corpse on the operating table isn't Tony-Tony Chopper anymore. __He's dead. _Tony-Tony Chopper is **dead**."

_For a moment, seething rage and disbelief. Then the cold tranquility returned, and with it, clear thought._

"_Right. This operation is over," Law said slowly, peeling off his bloodstained gloves. "Prepare the body for a post-mortem."_

_As he walked away from the operating table, a thought crossed his mind._

_What was that nickname the Marines had given him again?_

_Oh yeah. 'The Surgeon of Death.'_

_He couldn't help it; he started laughing._

* * *

_Let us mourn together,_

_for fate crushes the brave._

_- 'O Fortuna', __Carmina Burana_

* * *

**End of Chapter 23**

* * *

**_A/N: So uh, it's April Fools, and yes, this chapter is for real. Unlike Chapter 14 last year, I'm not pranking you guys this time..._**

**_In case anyone was wondering, the events in this fic diverge from the manga sometime during the timeskip. _**

**_I'd just like to thank everyone for the reviews, favourites and shares, I'm really enjoying writing this. _**

**_Oh, and there's some new art up on my DeviantArt page. By request: coloured pieces of Gurnarde and Mr. Garreth Suesse (a.k.a. Mar's Dad). You can get the link from my profile page where FFnet doesn't strip out the URL! Just scroll down to the Art section._**

* * *

**_Q/A Section:_**

* * *

**_chrysanthemum  
3/22/12 . chapter 22_**

I read everything in one day. When I reached chapter 22, I was "NOOOOOooooo, I need more!" I'm seriously addicted to this crack. I mean crack in a good way, not that crack is good for you, but I digress... XD

_**A:**_ Haha, this is the first time I've heard of this fic being described as such, but it's very gratifying, thank you ;)

* * *

_**Anonymoush**_  
_**2/21/12 . chapter 16**_

IMBA stands for imbalanced, doesn't it?

**_A: _**Well spotted. Lance D. Imba is indeed and anagram of 'Imbalanced'. Kudos to those of you who figured it out!

_**2/21/12 . chapter 3**_

Call me dense, but I just can't seem to figure out what the first combination is. All I've got is MELLOSIN...and then apparently it's too long...? I'm utterly confused.

_**A:**_ You might need to swap that 'S' for a 'R" ;)


	24. A Messenger In A Bottle

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!**

A Deconstruction, in which prominently features:

**Chapter 24: A Messenger In A Bottle**

* * *

While Law's recounting of his story had certainly helped explain how he had gone from being a pirate rising star known as 'The Surgeon of Death' to what he was now, it also left Mar at a total loss at how to respond to it.

I'm sure we've all been there at some point in our lives, when someone tells us of their horrific experiences, and they are to such an extent that we cannot even imagine what it must have been like. In those cases, nothing, _absolutely nothing,_ that you could say in return feels like the right thing to say, so you end up being struck dumb.

And this was how it was with Mar. Though at the very least, Mar was also beginning to understand why Law had been so reluctant to discuss the topic when it had been brought up earlier.

Still, with the ache of the Logic-Logic fruit throbbing in her head, there was one thing that had to be said:

"I don't think you really killed Chopper. I mean, don't patients normally die in surgeries? Isn't it part of the risk?"

Law gave her a not-in-my-surgeries-they-don't glare. "You weren't there. Trust me when I say I killed him, I wasn't being maudlin. I _did_ kill him."

There was another awkward silence after that.

"So uh... what happened after that? I guess you went out to look for the remaining Straw-Hats... but you still had your crew and your ship right?"

For a while there was no response from Law, and then:

"'Had' is the correct word."

Mar suddenly had a disturbing recollection that Law/The Disinfector had been alone in Sabaody, and by his own admission, had always been alone until he had met them.

"Wh-what happened to your crew?"

"Gone," was Law's monosyllabic reply. Unlike earlier, he didn't seem eager to elaborate on _how_.

Mar didn't dare ask for more details. At the mention of his crew, there was a hardened, haunted look in his eyes that frightened her. This was a topic he did not want to discuss, and Mar had enough sense and self-preservation to refrain from pursuing it.

Finally Law spoke again. "I'd heard that the Straw-Hats hid the Sunny somewhere before heading out in their sub, but though I searched, I never did find out where.

"To make matters worse, Madelyn apparently disappeared after our showdown, and the New Heart Pirates, led by that sack of bile 'Squall', went on a rampage in search of their 'Queen'. It turned the Grand Line into a constant warzone.

"Oh, I should mention they were searching for me too, just in case I wasn't dead. Dumbasses thought I was the one responsible for making Madelyn disappear and wanted revenge."

(By the way, Law didn't really use the word "Dumbasses". He actually used a much, much, more ruder word, but it sort of means the same thing, really.)

"And that was why you took on the identity of The Disinfector!"

"Part of the reason. It's a pain moving around looking for information when a bunch of rabid pirates are after you. Sure, I could have taken them on, but having a gimp heart was a bit of a handicap and not worth the effort."

A sudden thought struck Mar.

"Law, my Logic-Logic powers! I could use them to make it so that your heart never—"

"–_**NO!**_" snapped Law so suddenly and fiercely that Mar was taken aback. Then he grimaced, clutched at his chest, muttered something about getting worked up being bad for his heart, before continuing to speak more calmly.

"No, I don't want that. Not from _you_. Not from someone who looks so much like _Her_. _She_ was aways offering to do things like that for me, with that same look on her face... I know you're not _her_," he added in response to Mar's terrified visage. "I know you're not. But still... no."

There was a cold hatred in his voice that sent shudders down Mar's spine. Mar herself despised Madelyn for the horrible things the woman had done, but as she realised now, it was nothing compared to the hatred of those upon whose lives Madelyn had utterly ruined.

"Then why have you been going out of your way to keep me alive?" Mar asked quietly.

"Not out of the goodness of my heart," Law said bluntly. "I'll be honest with you, Captain Mar. I've been searching for Madelyn for two decades. I kept you alive at first because I thought you were a lead to her. Then when your powers started manifesting, I kept you, and your father alive because I felt they could be of use."

"My powers?"

"Yes, your powers. Do you know how your powers work now?"

"Sort of. I can make things... logical. And sometimes I can make things illogical. But sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. I'm still kinda confused about that."

"I have a hypothesis. Your Logic-Logic powers gives you the power to enforce logic, or to completely defy it. Have you noticed the one thing your failures all had in common?"

"Um..."

"They were all attempts to warp logic. Did any of the attempts to enforce logic fail?"

Mar thought it over. "No, actually."

"Just as I suspected. Based on my observations so far, your powers seem to work on the principle of gained resources. Your enforcing of logic seems to give you the power to warp logic... think of it as a tank of fuel," he continued, seeing Mar's blank look of incomprehension. "Every time you enforce logic, you fill up your 'tank' a little with how shall we call it... 'illogic' power? Every time you defy logic, you use up that 'illogic' and the tank depletes. And if you run out..."

"...I can no longer warp reality to defy logic!"

"Precisely. Which is why you should avoid using your powers to defy logic unless there is no other choice."

"But why? Can't I just keep enforcing logic and fill up the tank again later?"

"As much as it pains me to admit this, your powers are the only ones I've seen that even come close to matching Madelyn's. Which means should it come to it, you may be the only one capable of countering her."

"_I'm your secret weapon?"_ Mar squawked in disbelief.

"If you want to put it that way." Law replied calmly. "We know Madelyn has returned from wherever she's been hiding for the past twenty years. She has her own ways of gathering information. I doubt she'll let you remain at large when you present such a threat to her. As demonstrated by Squall and his lackeys, she's already after you and your father, which is why you need to build up as much of a power reserve as you can.

"Mar, when the time comes to face her... you must be prepared for worst. Start building up your reserves now."

Mar fought down a rising panic. She was used to be protected. She was used to being the weak one, and the idea of being the 'One Whom Everyone's Hopes Hinges On' was a frightening change of roles.

"M-me? But I'm just... I don't even know how to... Disinf-Law... I can't—"

Her protestations however, were interrupted by a shout from outside.

"MAR! MAR? Where are you?"

"Dad! We're in the infirmary!" Mar shouted back.

There was a clattering of footsteps from the deck. The two of them looked towards the door, then Law turned back and trained his intense gaze at Mar.

"Captain Mar, what I've told you just now stays between the two of us. And the _Sunny_. And as far as everyone else is concerned, I am still the Disinfector, and you are never to refer to me by the name 'Law', do you understand?"

Mar managed to nod just as the door flew open. Mr. Suesse, still flushed from running, burst in.

"Mar! You're all right! Thank goodness! I was— oh!" Mar's dad stopped short at stared in surprise at the unmasked Law, or as we should now call him, The Disinfector. "Whoa, so you're a real person under that suit after all... er... you OK? You don't look so good."

Now before the angry hordes start typing out their protestations at this choice of description, do note that in this context, Mr. Suesse definitely meant 'you don't look so good' from a purely medical/health standpoint. In terms of physical appearance , let me just assure you that it is indeed Trafalgar Law we're talking about here. I think we can definitively say Dr. Law would would not, and in this case, _did not,_ have any problems with 'looking good'. Yes, even at twenty years older.

Which incidentally, should help explain Mr. Suesse's "Whoa," as well.

...

OK, that came out wrong. I wasn't implying anything of that sort. It would be just _weird_. Mr. Suesse was just surprised at seeing a normal-looking human person underneath the hazard suit, that's all. You know, since most people who hide their faces tend to have some hideous disfigurement and such, or are looking to hide their identity.

For Law it was the latter, but then Mr. Suesse did not know that.

_ANYWAY_...

"**The Disinfector appreciates your concern, Suesse. However these injuries are of no long-term consequence."** The Disinfector rose to his feet, but he still needed a hand on the wall to steady himself. This did not go unnoticed by Mr. Suesse.

"No offense, Disinfector, but You know what they say about doctors dying young and security consultants getting their houses broken into. You should at least get that arm looked at. I can give you a hand, I attended an EFR course before."

**"Unnecessary. Must prioritise the information extraction of Squall."**

"Oh, the punk pirate? I think that crazy dragon-woman's got that well in hand. "

**"She may go overboard. The Disinfector needs to make sure he isn't killed... yet. He has important information we need."**

"I'll go," Mar said before she had thought it over. "Leave the rest to me. You patch the Disinfector up Dad— bye!"

Then she bolted out of the infirmary before anyone could protest.

* * *

In hindsight, Mar realised that she really should have thought things through. But then, this whole volunteering to do something thing was really unlike her to begin with. Normally she preferred to stay in the background and go with the flow. It was much easier to just let things happen or let the others handle things.

But something about Law's story had made her want to do things differently this time. It was then when Mar realised that she was tired of being useless and weak and constantly running away. No, she wanted to be someone who actually did useful things instead of sitting around wishing her life was better off. Someone who actually had control over what happened to her instead of being a victim.

I should stress however, that this change of resolve was not a sudden thing that happened over the course of a single conversation. In fact, if you have been paying attention to the story, it had been coming along for a while now. This was just the moment when Mar herself realised that she, without intending to, had changed, which suits this narrator just fine, since she did get considerably less annoying to narrate for.

When Mar had made her way back up on the deck, she could see Gurnarde in the distance, her shock of wild hair and distinctive wing-fins standing out clearly against the broken stone fountain she was perched on. It took Mar a bit longer to locate Walker, since he was sitting down and in that position he looked almost exactly like an extension of the stone ruin.

"Ah Captain!" Gurnarde called out giddily as Mar came running up. "I have to say, travelling with you has been such an invigorating experience. I haven't had such a glorious romp for a long while."

"Er..."

Apparently Gurnarde's idea of a 'romp' was slaughtering an entire island full of people. Granted, they probably (and by 'probably' I mean 'definitely') deserved it. Still, Mar could see why The Disinfector had been worried about Gurnarde going overboard.

"Walker and I have decided to tarry awhile longer in your company. We appreciate the opportunities your presence offers us," Gurnarde continued, happily flashing her predatory smile.

An angry voice interrupted her speech of contentment.

"Well the jokes on you, Sand-Dragon! That wench isn't the Pirate Queen! She's a useless imposter, and you got taken in! You hear me? Taken in!"

It was definitely Squall's voice, which Mar was relieved to hear. But much to her confusion, it was coming from the bottle of rum Gurnarde was holding.

"Squall. Is in. The bottle," Mar said slowly, realising the truth.

"Yes, we did have such a delightful time fitting him in, didn't we, Walker?"

Walker grunted in assent, the sound of which was quickly drowned by Squall's angry shrieks.

"So are you going to let that stand, Sand-Dragon? You're not going to kill her for tricking you?"

"I didn't deceive—" began Mar.

Mar stopped then because Walker had moved forward and given Mar a reassuring pat in the head. He, at least, was on her side. Then much to her surprise, Gurnarde appeared to be too.

"Do you honestly believe us merfolk susceptible to your lowly manipulations?" Gurnarde said scornfully to Squall, stoppering the bottle. This muffled the sounds of Squall's ranting somewhat, but Mar could still hear him throwing out accusation after accusation. "Hold your vile tongue, kelpling."

Mar still felt obliged to explain herself. "Gurnarde, about earlier... I should have let you know, I'm not The Pirate Queen. I didn't mean to deceive anyone."

Gurnarde shrugged unconcernedly. "I will admit I appear to have made certain incorrect assumptions, but it matters little. Walker and I chose to aid you because of your kindness to Walker. Not by what title the humans have chosen to give you."

Mar stared at the mermaid in surprise. It was such a phlegmatic remark that it seemed rather at odds with the bloodthirsty (and indisputably insane) mermaid that she thought she knew. She was still staring when the mermaid asked her next question:

"How fares the Disinfector?"

"Um, he's OK?" Mar managed to say.

"Excellent. I saved this for him," with this, Gurnarde placed the stoppered rum bottle into Mar's hands. "Why don't you do the honours and bring this to your crew while we move your ship to the yard? The kelpling evidently has much to say, but what it pertains to would be a matter between you humans, not us merfolk."

Mar glanced at the billowing green depths of the bottle. Squall didn't look very comfortable in there. "Thank you, Gurnarde. I will."

* * *

Branchy, the great sea-beast towing the ship (who during the battle had contributed by whimpering in fear beneath the _Thousand Sunny) _was soon coaxed back into pulling action by Walker. After carefully maneuvering the damaged _Thousand Sunny _between the assorted flotsam in the harbour, the crew soon found the long-arm shipwright waiting for them.

"'Bout time! So you lot are still alive? I was wondering if that pirate armada got you."

"Sorry to disappoint," said Mar shortly, since her father and The Disinfector will were still in the infirmary and both Gurnard and Walker were currently in the water somewhere. "It's more of the other way around."

"Whatever," snapped the shipwright rudely as he headed back into his workshop. "Just get her secured yonder, I'll be getting my tools so we can get started."

"Charming man," grumbled Mar, in a fair imitation of Gurnarde.

"Hey! Girl!" the bottle that contained Squall whispered suddenly. "You and that other man came here from that another world, didn't you?"

Mar kept her gaze on the shoreline and tried to ignore the bottled logia.

"I know you did. And there was another, didn't you? Don't you want to know what happened to the other woman?"

Despite herself, this got a reaction from Mar.

"What do you know about her?" she demanded.

Squall, on finding that his target had taken the bait, appeared to relish his advantage. "I know where the woman is. If you want me to tell you, get me out from this bottle, and we'll talk."

Now if we were in one of those poorly-plotted out stories where the author suddenly felt the need to introduce some unnecessary drama with a ship-takeover scene, this is what would have happened:

Our protagonist, in her anxiety to get information on her missing mother, would have temporarily lost her sanity and actually complied with this request.

And of course on escaping his prison Squall would take Mar hostage or something like that, necessitating a pointless rescue arc for her stupidity. Never mind that it makes no sense for the protagonist to do so, goes against her characterisation so far of being moderately sensible, and doesn't add much to the overall plot. Who ever thinks that deeply about the consequences of a scene they put into a story anyway?

Fortunately for us, Mar had eaten the Logic-Logic fruit, not the Dumbass-Dumbass fruit, so not only did she not comply with Squall's request, she chose a course of action that effectively countered it. She walked over to the side of the ship and called out:

"Gurnarde? The mist guy's trying to bribe his way out of the bottle with information about my mother!"

Okay, admittedly tattle-tale-ing to a psycho mermaid might not have been your most recommended course of action in normal circumstances. But in this case, I think we can safely say it was not normal circumstances.

"What do you think you're doing? Don't call that sea-harpy here!" hissed Squall's bottle in horror.

"Then stop thinking I'm stupid, jerkface," Mar stuck her tongue out at Squall. She wasn't feeling charitable as she still remembered that Squall had been the one who had stabbed Law in the heart.

Evidently, Squall did too, because he gave a little shriek of fear when the door to Chopper's office opened and both her father and the Disinfector finally emerged. Mar noted that the tear in The Disinfector's suit was now mended, and if he was still feeling unwell, he was extremely skilled in hiding it.

He had also put his helmet back on, much to Mar's mixed feelings of disappointment and relief. As appealing as the idea of The Disinfector/Law continuing to walk around without his helmet was, his unmasked visage was admittedly rather distracting. Mar decided she really didn't need to be getting funny feelings around someone who was:

a) Possibly around her father's age

b) While that same someone was standing right next to said father

c) The juxtaposition of which on reflection, was downright... ew.

In conclusion, I think we can say having your father around on your adventures definitely puts a damper on any potential romance, which is why most stories with young female protagonists don't like having fathers tagging along in the first place.

"Mar, there you are! What have you got in that bottle?"

"It's that asshat Squall. And he says he knows where Mom is."

In several quick strides Mr. Suesse had crossed the deck, snatched the bottle from Mar, and was angrily shaking it while yelling: "Where have you bastards taken my wife, you son of a—?"

"Suesse, let me handle this," The Disinfector said sedately as he held out his re-gloved hand for the bottle. "Hello Squall. I have to say, you were far more menacing as a swordsman, as opposed to flatulence in a bottle."

"Doctor. Save your taunts. As I told you back then, nothing you to do me will make me betray my Queen. I would rather die."

"Die? Squall, killing is what I do to enemies I like. You on the other hand, I still have some unfinished business with from twenty years ago. For that little incident with my nodachi, I plan to..." —at this point Law leaned in close and whispered something to Squall that Mar couldn't hear.

Mar's dad however, could, and nearly dropped the bottle in horror. "Disinfector, that's just—"

"...and when all that is done, I'll..."

"Mar, don't listen to this!" Mr. Suesse tried to drown out The Disinfector's voice.

"...and if I feel charitable after that, I guess I'll actually keep to my words and we'll find out if it is possible to cut the heart out of a logia*—"

"I'LL TELL YOU!"

There was a ringing silence at Squall's prompt surrender.

"I'll tell you! I'll tell you! Just don't... let him... do that..."

"Let him what?" Gurnarde's voice interrupted. She had just climbed aboard with Walker in tow. "By the way Captain, did you call for me?"

"Oh yeah, I did. I kinda needed your help with Squall earlier, but he's talking now."

"Ah. Did the kelpling have anything interesting to say?"

He did.

"When we razed Sabaody the slave shop owners told us that this certain Tennryubito had a standing order arrangement with every one of the retailers for the past two decades. Women of a certain description were to be offered to him first. The outworlder woman matched the description, so accordingly the slavers gave him the first chance to buy her before she even got to the shop."

"Which he did," hissed Mr. Suesse, his face dark at the memory.

"Mom..." Mar clenched her fists and told herself she would not cry. But tears were leaking out of the corner of her eyes all the same. Walker, being an absolute rock, noticed, and gave her a little pat again.

"What happened to the woman? Did you manage to reclaim her from the Tennryubito?" continued Law, unemotionally.

"No. As far as we know she remains in his possession. The Pirate Queen said she would handle the outworlder woman herself. We were only told to go after the man and girl."

"She's after Mom too? But why?"

"Bait, perhaps," surmised The Disinfector. "What is your wife's name?" he asked Mr. Suesse suddenly.

"Blake. Short for Blakeney."

"Hm. And she doesn't go by any other name?"

"Well, her maiden name's Hosseau, but she goes by Suesse now. Why?"

"It matters little what her name is," Gurnarde pointed out pragmatically. "If she is the property of the Tennryubito, they will have renamed her to whatever they please."

Mr. Suesse's reply was not in words that I would opt to repeat. In all fairness, he was little upset at his wife being referred to as 'property'. Fortunately, Gurnarde didn't seem offended. In fact she looked rather pleased at Mr. Suesse's creative descriptions of the Tennryubito.

"Why is Madelyn after the outworlders?" The Disinfector asked, still focused on his objective.

"I- I dont know. We only were told that it was important and they were to be captured alive."

"And the name of that ten-rude-bit-o who bought my wife?" cut in Mr. Suesse.

"St. Magnus."

This immediately caught Gurnarde's attention.

"The Celestial Dragon Saint Augustus Magnus? He has your mate as a slave?" Gurnarde suddenly looked thoughtful. "It would seem that our meeting was not by chance. Perhaps the fates have brought us together after all.

"I have not spoken of this before, but St. Magnus has long been my prey."

"Every single Tennryubito IS your prey, Sand-Dragon."

"True, but St. Magnus is _special_. He possesses something that I have long sought to reclaim. Long has it eluded me, for even amongst those fiends in human form, St. Magnus is a strange one, and his home is well-secured to the point of paranoia. A frontal assault would be suicidal. However, Locksmith Suesse's does possess fearsome skills in burglary, and it might make the difference in the success of an attempt."

"You're offering to help me find my wife?" said Mar's dad in surprise.

"In return for helping me break into the home of St. Magnus, yes. I have no doubt he holds your mate in his home."

Despite all his misgivings about Gurnarde, Mr. Suesse did not hesitate in his response.

"We start planning now."

* * *

Safely docked in the shipyard, the Thousand Sunny was currently a buzzing hive of activity.

The able crewmembers were busy bustling around helping the shipwright with the repairs. The long-arm, true to his word, had proven very skilled at his job, and they estimated the repairs wouldn't take more than a few days.

Mar was still recovering from Imba's finger-gun injury, and so had been excluded from any kind of physically-straining activity. In fact, she had been firmly instructed by The Disinfector to sit down somewhere and stay out of the way. She had taken this with philosophical acceptance.

The Disinfector on the other hand, had not relished the irony of his words being echoed back to him by the rest of the crew. Being a doctor and having been recently injured, you would think he'd agree with his own very sensible piece of advice. But as I have mentioned before, doctors make terrible patients, and this doctor happened to be one who didn't like taking orders to begin with.

After the initial argument, The Disinfector grudgingly relented and seemed to content to pretend nothing had happened to him. Instead, he decided to continue with the task of interrogating their prisoner.

"How did you know we were at Hawker Island?" asked the doctor of the bottled logia.

"News travels fast." Squall, weary from hours upon hours of threats and questioning, did not offer any more resistance, "B-but we had a tip-off from one of the island residents who told us the Pirate Queen had landed."

"Who exactly?"

"I- I don't know!" wailed Squall. "The third mate was the one who received the call and has the name, but... the ship sunk and..."

The Disinfector made a noise of annoyance. "How very convenient."

Squall gave a fair imitation of a girl's scream. "I'm telling the truth! Please! Girl, don't let him do it! Pleeease!"

Mar was about to comment on the irony of her playing good cop to The Disinfector's bad cop, when a low purring sound stopped all activity.

"Puru-puru-purup!"

"What's that sound?" Mar's dad, who hadn't quite got acquainted with the world's technology yet, started looking around for the source of the noise.

"Is that a den-den mushi?" asked Mar.

Gurnarde, who happened to be making her way across deck, turned to her brother. "Walker, I believe it is the den-den mushi you despoiled from that kelpling."

Walker put down the end of the replacement mast he and Gurnarde had been carrying, rifled through his pockets, and pulled out a full-sized den-den mushi. The little snail was still insistently calling for attention. Before anyone could say anything, he answered it.

"Hello?" rumbled the deep voice of the fishman.

"Squall, status report!" snapped the voice from the other end. "Were our targets at Hawker Island? Do you have the man and girl? Are they unharmed?"

For several seconds no one on board moved. Their collective attention was fixed on the den-den mushi. The snail had somehow gained long sweeping eyelashes, and the voice it had taken on, despite sounding forced and harsh, was indisputably of that of a woman.

In fact, as everyone quickly realised, the voice could only belong to one person: THE Woman.

"Squall, your queen commands you to speak!" The den-den mushi was looking more agitated by the minute. "What's going on over there? Do you have them alive or not?"

"I'm afraid Squall has failed you, Madelyn," The Disinfector/Law spoke up, taking the den-den mushi from Walker. "Not only did he fail to secure your precious targets, he ordered your armada to destroy the very island they were on."

There was a gasp, followed by a poignant silence from the other end of the line.

"Fortunately that didn't quite succeed because I just happened to be present."

Still no words, but they could hear Madelyn's panicked breathing even through the den-den mushi. She had recognised Law's voice, of course.

"The girl and the man are alive. But if you still want them so badly, Madelyn," The Disinfector/Law taunted into the receiver, his voice becoming increasingly animated as he spoke. "Come and get them."

There was a little shriek at this, cut off abruptly by the sound of a receiver being slammed down on the other end.

The den-den mushi switched to a yawn mid-scream quickly went back to sleep.

The rest of the gathered crew stared at the The Disinfector, who in turn kept his gaze fixed at the now-silent receiver in grim satisfaction.

"Your move, Madelyn. So come out and play," he murmured, his unseen face breaking into a twisted smirk. "_Come out and play._"

* * *

**End of Chapter 24**

* * *

**Footnotes:**

**[1] Cut out a logia's heart = Oh we know the answer to that one, don't we? Thank you Oda!**

* * *

_**A/N:**_

_**Firstly, here's something to cheer you all up for No-Manga-Week.**_

_**Sorry about the traumatising last chapter ;) What can I say, other than I am a cruel and sadistic writer?**_

_**Secondly, I'm thrilled to announce this fic recently got its own page over at TVTropes, which is darn cool. Thanks for your awesome work, Pezt and FoominBlue!**_

_**Lastly, more art! Check out The Disinfector and Mar at #/d4xmy2p. Not my best work ever, but at least you can get an idea of what the two of them look like. There are other fanfic-related artpieces in my gallery as well, including Gurnarde and Walker if you haven't seen them yet.**_

_**PS: Over 300 reviews? Awesome! Thanks to everyone for reviewing this fic, I've never gotten to this milestone for number of reviews before. So thank you and keep reviewing!**_


	25. The 2nd Underwater Submarine Incident

**_A/N: Was anyone else freaked out by the similarities of the latest OP manga chapter to some of the events in this story? I was writing this to be so far removed from canon that I wasn't expecting to see anything like that to be in actual events, and yet... Whoa. Anyway enough prattling... on with the story!_  
**

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!**

A Deconstruction, which once again contains lot of disturbing and depressing stuff par the course for this story. Sensitive readers, be wary!

**Chapter 25: The Second Underwater Submarine Incident **

* * *

Upon the deep blue waters of the Grand Line, a naval skirmish was currently taking place.

If you want more details, the ship involved was the _Thousand Sunny,_ and it was under attack by a small fleet of pirate ships. Judging from the insignias the ships flew, those ships looked to be stragglers left over from the Pirate Queen's armada.

Unfortunately for them, these same ships were facing some rather nasty odds: two devil fruit users, two aquatic warriors in their element, and a fully-repaired _Thousand Sunny_. Oh, and a security consultant.

Like I said, bad odds.

"They are just so eager to die, aren't they?" Gurnarde commented wryly, gazing past the bow at the approaching enemy ships.

"**Possibility: remnants of armada objected to our treatment of Squall,**" The Disinfector mused, off-handedly deflecting the incoming canon-fire. **"The Disinfector cannot imagine why, his end was more charitable than he deserved."**

Gurnarde did not reply; she had already dived into the water, barely making a splash. Walker followed suit, but less gracefully than his svelte sister.

"You fiends! You will pay for what you did to our commander!" screamed the assorted pirates on the ships as they came into range. "Load and fire! Aim to kill!"

Twin spiraling columns of water shot out of the sea in response, rising to an incredible height before crashing down onto the deck of the pirate ship in a furious water-to-air assault.

"Wow. So that's what that attack looks like when it isn't interrupted!" Mar said appreciatively.

"I don't think they'll be shooting any more cannonballs at us now," added Mr. Suesse, who was manning the _Sunny's _cannons. "Our turn!"

Their returning volley of fire was considerably more successful and the pirate ship was rocked with several hits.

"Nice one, Dad!"

"Thanks, kiddo. I think I'm getting the hang of it," said Mr. Suesse modestly. For someone who didn't like guns, he sure seemed to be enjoying manning the cannons.

"**Incoming! They have a devil-fruit user,"** warned The Disinfector. True enough, they could see a single figure launch itself off the deck of the floundering ship and fly towards them.

"Huh. What on earth is that supposed to be?"

"**Cloud-Cloud fruit is reasonable supposition."**

"So that's why he's doing a _Sun-Wukong_ and surfing on the cloud over to our ship," Mar observed as the cloud-rider drew closer. But before the enemy pirate could burst into an impassioned speech or any kind of trash-talk, he suddenly fell through his own cloud-transport and plunged into the ocean below.

I should also add, the look on his face was priceless.

"**Good use of logic enforcement, Captain Mar. The Disinfector approves."**

"Er thanks," Mar replied, blushing furiously at the unexpected praise. "Oh er... looks like Walker and Gurnarde's got to the other enemy ship, guess this fight is all over now."

The Disinfector emotionlessly took note of the now-capsized vessels and the screaming-in-terror crew, and nodded. **"The Disinfector agrees."**

* * *

Later, Mar kept an eye on their dinner, which was cooking on the galley stove, while her father and Gurnarde were busy poring over plans to invade St. Magnus' mansion. The past few days had been hectic, as once her father got his mind made up to do something he didn't dally. The first iteration of their invasion preparations had been completed even before the ship had finished with its repairs. By the time they had sailed off, he'd pretty much had the whole thing planned out. Now Mr. Suesse was going through contingency plans and logistics in very organised, very thorough detail.

The Disinfector and Walker were in on the planning too, but Walker being Walker said very little in contribution, and The Disinfector seemed content to let the other two lead the effort.

Mar figured it was because he wasn't as interested in the endeavor as the rest of them. And while he probably wanted in on rescuing her mother because it would thwart Madelyn's mysterious objectives, Mar knew now that The Disinfector's real target was still Madelyn herself.

It was strange. After the incident in the infirmary and once they had 'disposed' of Squall, The Disinfector had thoroughly reverted back to his amiable, emotionless— almost inhuman persona. And even though she now knew who it was underneath the mask, Mar still found herself wondering if she had dreamed the whole thing and Law's story had all been a figment of her imagination. It was during these moments when she remembered that terrible look in Law's eyes back in the infirmary, which would bring her back down to earth with a shiver.

"**The Disinfector would like to know what is a **_**Sun-Wukong.**_**"**

Mar nearly upset the pot she was stirring in shock. She'd been so deep in her thoughts she hadn't noticed that The Disinfector had left the galley table and was now standing next to her.

Behind him, she could hear Gurnarde's voice saying archly to her father: "...Fisher Tiger successfully raided Mariejois single-handedly. In our case, surely our combined forces would be more than adequate—"

"As I keep telling you, that only worked before because there was no precedence. Now that the ten-rude-bit-o's know that there is a possibility of attack, they will be on guard against similar loopholes..." Her father sounded quite annoyed at Gurnarde's input.

The Disinfector cleared his throat. Mar was reminded again that her attention had been wandering. "Er sorry. He's a monkey king."

This, I might add to those of you who do not know your classical Asian literature, is a technically accurate explanation if not a very useful one.

"It's a character from a book I read," she hastened to explain further. "He's like this super-zoan-monkey-guy with special powers who can ride on clouds and fly around."

"**This explains Captain Mar's earlier description of cloud user."**

"Why'd you ask, anyway?"

"**The Disinfector wanted to know if was what induced Captain Mar to apply logic in that manner."**

"Nah. It just made sense that clouds shouldn't be able to hold people on them. Well maybe it's not the most obvious thing here," Mar mumbled, remembering Skypiea. "But I figured it made sense. I am storing up on the logic you know, if that's what you were planning on asking me."

"**The Disinfector concedes the point."**

For a moment they stood awkwardly in silence. Even if he showed no outward sign of it, Mar was acutely aware now how painful her mere presence must be to Law. Every time he looked at her, he was being forcibly reminded of the woman he hated and whom she unfortunately resembled.

"Disinfector. I... what do I do if... when Madelyn finds us? I mean I can stop her if she's being illogical but what's to keep her from controlling me as well?"

"**Logic fruit alone should render Captain Mar immune."**

"And then what?"

It was a good question. Certainly good enough for The Disinfector to spend several minutes composing his answer.

**"When time comes, we'll know. Remove Madelyn's existence entirely and make it so that none of this ever happened, or..."**

He left the rest unsaid.

"...no activity..." crackled a tinny voice suddenly, "...waste of time, this..."

"What was that?" Gurnarde turned and frowned at the unexpected noise.

"Is that the black den-den mushi?" Mar asked curiously, remembering how it sounded.

The Disinfector didn't bother to reply, but instead just raised the wrist-mounted snail to eye level so it could better be heard. He had previously reclaimed the wiretapping device from Mar after they had left Hawker Island.

"...can't believe we're sitting out here freezing our... off just because the Fleet Admiral said so..."

"Marines," grunted Walker, and immediately headed out of the galley and to the crow's nest. He was a very practical fishman who knew when to anticipate trouble.

"...not like we can see a thing anyway..."

"...Quit whining, lieutenant. Orders are orders. If the Fleet Admiral wants us to reinspect the site of the Underwater Submarine Incident, we do it and we'll _like_ doing it, understood?"

"...All due respect, sir...that damn thing's been down there for gorram twen'ny years. If those pirates wanted it that bad... could've gotten hold of it anytime..."

Mar noticed that the Disinfector's hand had suddenly gripped the edge of the counter more tightly than necessary.

"What is it? What do they mean by 'Underwater Submarine Incident'?" Mar whispered.

The Disinfector only made a motion for her to keep quiet.

"...well they didn't, apparently. The sonar's not showing signs of any disturbance."

"...Yay, can we go home now?"

"...Not quite yet... reports coming in about the New Heart Pirates and _The Thousand Sunny _being sighted not far from here. HQ orders are to investigate."

"...From ancient submarine wrecks to more ancient shipwrecks. Whoop-a-deedle-doo..."

The transmission trailed away to uninteresting whining peppered with some technical talk.

"Disinfector, what was that submarine incident thing?" Mar asked the moment it seemed appropriate.

The man in question recited robotically in response:** "The Underwater Submarine Incident was a highly-classified Marine encounter that occurred twenty years ago. Marine forces pursued and sunk an unidentified submersible object at an undisclosed location. Despite his efforts, the Disinfector was unable to obtain any additional information about the submersible, the incident, or the exact location of where it happened."**

It was then when Mar understood the Disinfector's line of thought.

"Wait— if it happened twenty years ago... you think that unidentified submersible they sunk is the _Shark Submerge_! You do, don't you?"

"**It is possible, but yet to be confirmed."**

At this the ship gave a lurch and changed course.

"_Sunny_?"

"Where are we going?"

"**_Sunny_, stop!"**

Despite the barked order from the Disinfector, the ship did not stop. They could hear Walker's exasperated roar of confusion coming from outside as the _Thousand Sunny _made a beeline for the source of the Marine transmission.

"Your ship's supernatural controller appears to be agitated," Gurnarde noted amusedly. "And very willful."

"_Sunny_, please!" Mar begged. But the ship disregarded her pleas. Unsure of how else to stop it, Mar turned to the Disinfector. "It's no use, _Sunny's_ not listening to me. You have to talk him out of this."

**"Damnit, Sunny!"** swore the Disinfector/Law, his agitation showing by his slip of character, "Stop! I know you want to find them. I want to too, but we can't go about it like this!"

The ship slowed. Then a plaintive ghostly voice filled the room.

"_But Doctor... if it's them... I need to know. I need to know..."_

"And we will," assured the doctor. "But that place is crawling with Marines and we can't go in blind. We need a plan first. So calm down."

The ship calmed down and slowed to a stop.

"So uh yeah... how are we going about with this plan?" Mar asked nervously.

Gurnarde, who had been observing the exchange in interest, spoke up. "Your plan may have to hold, Captain. There are more pressing matters at hand. Whether those Marines be on their way to Hawker Island or where we skirmished with the remainder of the New Heart Pirates, that patrol will be heading in our direction regardless. We should prepare for battle."

"No, we should avoid it."

Everyone turned to look at Mar's father, who had until that point, remained silent.

"Fighting pirates is one thing. But if we clash with these law enforcement groups now, it would put people on the alert. And in the long run it may jeopardise our plans."

"Then avoid them we shall," said Gurnarde.

**"Easier said than done. The nearest island in vicinity is still Hawker Island. There is nowhere to hide in the open ocean. Avoiding an entire Marine patrol coming this way will be problematic."**

Gurnard smiled in response. "I have an idea. Let us adjourn to the deck!" Without further word, the mermaid led them above decks where Walker was quickly filled in on the situation.

"So um yeah... this idea?" Mar asked hesitantly. "What are you planning to do?"

"Sometimes standing still may be the best move one can make. If there is no cover to be had, we will produce our own and cast upon this ocean a fog of war. Walker...?"

The two siblings took up positions on deck and started moving in sync, in a strange swaying rhythm that made Mar think of raindancers. And even as the thought occurred to her, a thick mist began spreading over the surface of the ocean around them. Within minutes, the entire area was blanketed in an opaque fog which rapidly thickened until Mar could barely see the crow's nest from the deck.

"There, even a sea-eagle would be hard-pressed to see anything through this mist. If we remain silent, it is likely the Marine fleet will pass us without knowing we are here."

**"The Disinfector had no idea merfolk could perform such feats."**

"It is something of a new discovery," Gurnarde said proudly. "I taught it to Walker after I became aware of this ability myself. I had inadvertently manipulated the gushing lifeblood of one of my slain foes, you see... The crimson mist made for excellent cover."

There was an awkward silence at this.

"Er, right..." squeaked Mar hesitantly. "Um the water-based version is cool too."

"Of course. Blood possesses more warmth than seawater, after all," Gurnarde replied, completely missing her point.

"What now, then?" asked her father, apparently choosing not to continue pursuing that particular line of conversation.

**"We wait for the marines to pass us. And once they are clear, we find the location of the sunken sub and confirm if it's the **_**Shark Submerge**_**."** The Disinfector made a hand motion and covered the ship in one of his devil-fruit 'Rooms' as he said this.

**"A little contingency never hurt," **he added.

* * *

It was strange how complete silence was well... _not_. At least this was what Mar thought as the crew of _The Thousand Sunny (_with the exception of Gurnarde, who had slipped overboard earlier to do more scouting) sat and waited in the mist for the Marine fleet to pass. Certainly it was a tense time, and every ambient sound— the slap of the wave against the hull, or the creak of the floorboards, sounded like a gunshot to Mar's ears.

The only other sound on board was the black den-den mushi's relay, to which everyone was intently listening to.

"—amn fog... glad it's finally clearing."

A splash announced the return if their scout. "It was not a lone patrol loitering around. The Marine fleet is surprisingly vast." Gurnarde announced as she wrung the water out of her tattered cloak. "But according to the fish, they've passed us and reached the edge of the fog. We should be safe now."

There was a general sigh of relief on board at this.

_"Then we're going to find them!"_ said the _Sunny_ right after Gurnarde had finished her report. _"We're going! Now!"_

"_**Sunny..."**_

But there was no mollifying the ship this time, and it had begun to move on its own again.

"Should we...?"

The Disinfector shook his head. **"The sooner confirmation is obtained, the sooner raid on St. Magnus may take place,**" he pointed out pragmatically.

"Can't argue with that," replied Mar's dad. "Let's just go along with our crazy autopilot then."

Everyone had to duck to avoid the swinging boom half a second later. The _Sunny_ was apparently in a bit of a fey mood.

* * *

It was not long before they reached the area where the Marine ships had been. Mar was slightly surprised to see it had been marked with a single buoy.

"This looks to be the place. As you humans are unable to dive to such depths, Walker and I shall descend and seek this wreck they speak of. We shall soon see if it does indeed shed light on the fate your lost comrades."

The last bit was addressed to the Disinfector, whom Mar noted did not bother correcting Gurnarde about his relationship to the Straw-Hats. In fact, he was worryingly tense.

**"This remaining mist could well be a double-edged sword. If the Marines decide to come back this way, we won't be able to see anything coming at us either."**

"Then we'd best be quick. Have no fear. We will be back ere long."

With this, the mermaid swan-dived off the boat and into the white-misted ocean. Walker made to follow suit, but not before turning back to the gathered crew and waving a shy goodbye.

Maybe because the ship itself was in a state of high tension, the ensuing half-hour seemed to drag on forever for the crew. The Disinfector preoccupied himself with monitoring communications on the black den-den mushi again while her father continued poring over his mansion-invading plans in the background. Mar sat and watched the sleeping normal den-den mushi, willing it to ring with word from Gurnarde.

**"Something is amiss," **The Disinfector said suddenly, after a tense period in which no one had said anything. **"Marine communications are too quiet."**

"Isn't that good news? That means they're completely out of the area right?"

**"Maybe," **The Disinfector's didn't sound convinced. "**Or Marines may have figured out we're tapping them and are brought out the white den-den mushi to block us."**

"Aren't those things quite rare?"

**"Yes."** It was a single word, but the tone spoke volumes. If the marines were worried about them enough to employ blockers for common communication, they must have meant business.

But before Mar could respond, the den-den mushi suddenly rang. Mar snatched up the receiver. "Gurnarde?"

"Ah Captain. We've found it."

"It? You mean the _Shark Submerge_?"

"Yes. Judging from the deterioration it appears to have been lying on the seafloor for the past two decades. Not much remains of the original structure, I'm afraid. We almost mistook it for a reef."

**"Then how you do you know it is the sub?" **The Disinfector cut in, a little rudely.

"Walker examined the inside while I talked to a resident moray eel. They live quite long you know? This one was a venerable specimen. She told me of a time when the water in that area thundered and the thing that eventually became the reef fell upon her home. According to her, back then it looked very much like a shark in pieces."

"Walker is also finding something inside ship-reef," interrupted a deep rumbling voice. "Old bones. Some is being small hunam bones, but some big. And not bone. Metal but looking like hunam."

"Franky..." Involuntarily, Mar felt her eyes begin to tear.

"The moray assures me nothing living came forth from that wreck. I think it is safe to assume this is indeed the final resting place of the last of the Strawhats. You have my condolences."

An awful silence followed this pronouncement.

"So they never made it," said Law said somberly, any pretense of his Disinfector persona forgotten. Even with his face concealed Mar could tell he had been affected. "I'd always suspected it had to be something like that for them to not come for Chopper." He took a deep breath. "But now, we know for sure. All that time we were waiting, and they were all already long dead."

The ship's ghost was crying. Mar was too, much to the alarm of her father.

"I-I'm... ok Dad. And I'm sorry, _Sunny_," was all Mar could bring herself to say. "Just thinking about it... It's just so... sad."

"Captain, would you like us to retrieve the remains?"

Mar considered for a moment, then she remembered the desecrated graves of Zoro, Robin and Sanji upon the rock island.

"No, leave them there, Gurnarde. It's been their resting place for the past twenty years. It doesn't seem right to disturb them now."

"Very well. Then this quest has drawn to a close. Now let us resume our hunt for St. Magnus. Walker, we—"

Abruptly, Gurnade's voice was cut off in a burst of static.

"Gurnarde?"

The den-den mushi seemed to be having trouble relaying words. But the sounds that filtered through sent chills to Mar's heart.

"...bush... alker... flee!"

Then bursts of noise that sounded like explosions.

Mar was frantic. "Walker! Gurnarde! What's going on?"

It wasn't the den-den mushi who responded. Instead, she heard the Disinfector's bark to the ship: **"**_**Sunny**_**, move! We need to get out of here now!"**

"Wait!" Mar yelled. "Gurnarde and Walker are still down there and we can't leave them—"

"—**should have known better! It was a trap!"** The Disinfector looked furious at himself as he pointed to the surface of the ocean, which was bubbling. Even from above water, they could hear the distant rumbles. "We can't help them now! We have no submersibles and those two are in their element. If they of all of people can't escape from this underwater, we certainly can't! There is nothing we can do to help them but get away and regroup later!"

Mar couldn't help but notice that in his stress, Law's 'Disinfector' tone had once again slipped.

"Disinfector, we still have the cover of the fog." Mr. Suesse cautioned, his face worried and tense. "Moving needlessly would give away our position—"

There was a series of booms and then strange keening wail. Mar recognised the sound, though she could barely believe it.

She wasn't the only one. The Disinfector swore succinctly and whirled around, bringing up his hands as he did so.

"ROOM!"

The sky burst into firey explosions, lighting up the fog. The blasts did not touch the _Sunny_ however, thanks to The Disinfector's timely intervention. Still, the heat from the explosion, and the sheer _force_ of it was more than enough to be terrifying.

"All shots on target," she heard Law mutter to himself, before his Disinfector tone reasserted itself. **"Somehow, they are aware of our exact location."**

"And we have no idea where the shots are coming from thanks to the fog! This is ridiculous!" Mr. Suesse had raced to man the cannons, and then had realised that the effort was futile. For now they were safe, but the smoke and heat was choking, and they knew The Disinfector would not be able to hold the his 'Room' indefinitely.

"How?" Mar's fear was turning into resentment now at the unfair odds. "How do they know exactly where we were in the fog? That's just freaking illogical... _cheating_! Well if they want to play that way..."

"**Captain, do not resort to **_**that**_** yet," **The Disinfector said quickly, guessing her intent. "Save it. I'll do it."

"But we're trapped in here and—"

"—I _said_ I'll do it. And Mar... whatever happens to me after we warp, leave it and focus on getting the ship away to safety, understand?"

"Warp? What do you mean war—"

She never finished her sentence because the world suddenly turned upside down, inside out and backwards to front. One moment they were in the middle of the bombardment, surrounded by fog and smoke. Next, the entire ship was somewhere else, in clear air and in the distance they could see the debris of the New Heart Pirate ships they had destroyed earlier. Much to Mar's confusion, around them was still the glowing blue confines Law's 'Room'.

"What... the hell?" Mar's father managed to say in shock. "We're back here again? Disinfector how did you... whoa!"

Mr. Suesse barely managed to catch Law in time as the other man slumped to the deck.

"Mar! Something's wrong with the Disinfector!"

Remembering Law's instructions, Mar ignored her father for the moment and scanned her surroundings. In the distance she could see Gurnarde's vast pall of fog covering the sea in the horizon. And ringed around the edges of the fog, was a massive fleet of Marine ships. They were all shelling a fixed point in the pale white mass.

"... just aim for the beacon, lads! No need to worry about the fog..." crackled The Disinfector's black den-den mushi. "Send them to hell!"

"Beacon?" Mar knew it was important, but right now they did not have the time to worry about such things. The Marines still hadn't realised the _Sunny_ had moved. It was their only chance to get away. She made up her mind.

"...what the... the beacon's moved! They're right behind us..."

"_Sunny_, Three O' clock! Then _Coup De Burst!_ Quick!"

With a whine of engines the ship responded. The _Sunny_ flew through the air. By the time the Marine ships could turn around and train their guns into the _Thousand Sunny_, they'd be out of range... and _free._

There was a groan from behind her. "Good job," Law said weakly, having just come to. He was still clutching at his heart and wincing. "Ouch. Never tried that with a whole ship before. And that kind of distance. Taxing."

"You can teleport things?" Mar's dad said in disbelief. I suppose it is a measure of accomplishment that Law's feat was so astonishing Mr. Suesse had completely failed to notice the ship was flying.

"Something like that," was Law's non-committal answer as the ship splashed-landed and immediately began sailing for it. "Good thing I made the proper preparations beforehand. I had a premonition we might need them."

Behind them they could hear the reports of the Marine guns, futilely firing after them.

"They're still firing at us? Huh... but we're well out of range of those cannons now," Mar began. "They're not going to—"

Then her eyes widened.

This time it was Mr. Suesse who swore. "_—it! _Those are long-ranged—"

Too late. Before Mar could react, the deck of the _Thousand Sunny_ exploded in a mass of splintering Adam wood and fire.

* * *

"_I'm sorry."_

When Mar came to, she was lying on the bottom of a small boat. Her ears were still ringing and her hair was plastered against her face with something that didn't feel like water. It took her two tries to pull herself up, and several seconds to realise she was in the _Mini-Merry._ Then the memories came rushing back: memories of nearly drowning and being pulled out of the water, and then her father's face, saying something about staying put and going back and...

"_I'm so sorry."_

The memories turned to ash and withered away from her mind as she turned around towards the source of the voice. A short distance away, wreathed in flames and floundering on one side, was the _Thousand Sunny_.

"_Sunny_!" Mar cried out before she could control herself. But the ship was dying. It was dying and it was crying. Then Mar's heart nearly stopped as she realised what seeing the burning ship meant for everyone else who had been on it.

"Dad? Dad! Where are you? Disinfector? Dad?" Her desperate screams rang out across the water. Her stomach cramped with fear. It couldn't end like this. Not like this! "Dad? Disinfector? Walker... Gurnarde... _Anyone_?"

"Mar!" a faint shout came from the direction of the wreck. "I've got him, over here!"

Her father was slowly swimming towards them, an unmoving Disinfector in tow.

Relief brought tears to Mar eyes. For a moment, she had thought she was going to be the only one left alive and alone. "Dad! Dad! Hang on in there, I'll bring the boat over!"

But even as the little boat made its way towards the survivors, a sharp crack from overhead directed their attention upwards. The burning mast had snapped. Both boom and beam were falling towards where her father and the Disinfector were in the water.

At that moment, Mar made another decision. Regardless of what Trafalgar Law had said about conserving her power reserves, all of it would be worth nothing if they were all dead. And she wasn't going to allow that.

The burning mast's trajectory suddenly shifted to a different angle as it fell, missing the two men narrowly. The fire sizzled into nothingness as it hit the water, throwing up a cloud of steam and smoke that obscured the immediate area.

"Dad?" Mar called out, clutching her stomach at the sudden stab of pain. "I can't see you! Say something!"

But there was no response.

Had it been enough? No, they could not be dead. She would not accept it. What was the point of having her devil-fruit power if she was forever keeping it in reserve?

"Sorry, Disinfector-Law," Mar whispered, "but I'm doing this."

And for the first time since she had eaten the Logic-Logic fruit, Mar consciously willed her powers to warp logic, and reality itself.

_Dad and The Disinfector will be all right, _Mar thought as hard as she could. A slight pain gnawed at her stomach. She gritted her teeth and continued.

_Gurnarde and Walker escaped from the ambush fine._

The pain intensified. But still Mar persisted.

_The Sunny isn't sinking. It isn't damaged. It isn't burning._

This time the pain nearly dropped her to her knees.

In the distance she could see the flames on the _Sunny_ die down and fade away. And for the first time ever she was in awe at witnessing her own power. It was like watching a video playing in rewind; the pieces of wood were flying back up and reassembling themselves, and even the broken mast was rising back out of the water and joining with the stump that remained.

She had to keep going. The _Thousand Sunny_ was was slowly righting itself as more and more wood fragments rose out of the water and started filling up the multiple holes in the shattered hull.

_I can do this! _she encouraged herself by thinking.

She was going to defy logic, restore the whole ship, find her people and ensure they would escape against all odds. Then she'd worry about disobeying the Law's instructions. As long as they all lived to fight another day.

It was at this point when _they_ came out of the smoke, dancing across the surface of the water almost as though they were jumping on air. Lithe figures in black, moving so quickly they were almost a blur to her eyes. And by the time Mar realised they were there, they were already too close. And before she could react, they were upon her.

I wish I could say Mar put up hell of a fight and gave them a run for their money, but sadly, weakened and preoccupied with restoring The _Sunny_, she went down from their combined attack in about... two seconds.

When it was over, Mar found herself on the bottom of the boat again, paralyzed from their strikes and unable to move. The one of the figures in black clapped something on her wrists, and the cold, weakening drain it emitted told her it was a sea-stone cuff.

_"No... Sunny!"_ she managed to gasp, struggling to sit up with a body that wouldn't respond to her instructions. She'd been interrupted before she had finished the restoration; the ship was still doomed.

But her powers were useless now. Everything about her was useless now. As if she were an inanimate object, one of the men in black picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, where she was treated to the upside-down view of the partially restored _Sunny_, still slowing sinking below the waves.

"_I'm so sorry," _The voice of the _Sunny_ cried in her head. _"This is all my fault. You kept your promise, but I failed to keep mine. I'm so sorry..."_

The rest of the ghost-ship's lament was drowned out by the voice of the man in black, who was spreaking into a den-den mushi.

"CP9 to HQ. Tell the Fleet Admiral his hunch about the Underwater Submarine was spot-on. Oh, and the tip-off we got from the inside source was good. Thanks to their help we managed to home in on the pirate flagship. Also, those new long-shot tracker warships did hell of a job and sunk those bastards."

Only the crow's nest of the _Sunny_ was visible now, but soon it too, disappeared beneath the water's surface to join the _Shark Submerge_ in its watery grave on the ocean floor.

"Good job," crackled the den-den mushi. "What about the pirates?"

"No other survivors found so far. Looks like it's over, and we've successfully secured the Pirate Queen."

* * *

**End of Chapter 25**

* * *

_**A/N: So... uh... yeah. Sorry for yet another downer ending again?**_

_**Just a quick note: there's been a lot of changes at FFnet recently, what with the new formats and covers and whatnot. I'd just like to assure everyone that no, it won't affect anything with regards to my stories. Fortunately, all my stuff is T-rated (well I think it is). I should say that if any of you think I should shift the ratings of any to M, let me know.**_

* * *

**Q and A:**

* * *

**Tears of HappinessMirth 5/13/12 . chapter 24**

I love all of your epic stories. But this, this just takes the epic cake. I almost always begin to wiki stuff up to look things up until I realize... this is a fanfiction! Hmm... delicious epic cake. And to think I put this off because of the title.

_**A: I'll admit, the title is misleading. Originally I'd meant to call this fic "Mary D. Sue and The Mystery of the New Pirate Age", which was a play on the typical titles of some One Piece OC stories, but it was considered too long for FFnet to accept. So I made some adjustments to make it sound like Anime!Episode title and also renamed the protagonist "Marie D. Suesse". In hindsight maybe I should have just called it "The Mystery of the New Pirate Age" or something. Ah well, too late to change now.**_

**Gwerewolf 5/20/12 . chapter 24**

My only real problem, though, is that you still seem to be too heavy handed with your narrative commentary... [sample quote of line here] ...It feels as if every time your story comes even remotely close to resembling a trope from a Sue fic (ex. Mar becoming slightly cooler as a character), you feel the need to defend yourself with a meta-narrative rant.

_**A: Oh dear, did that come across as 'defensive'? That's bad, as it was meant to be educational. You see, a lot of people previously wrote in and told me that they learned a lot about writing on reading this fic, so I started writing it with the idea of imparting what I learnt about writing and characterization in mind. So in this case I wanted to emphasize the difference between slow and steady character development justifying character change, and contrast what happens if there is a lack of it.**_

_**That particular line you quoted was supposed to be invocative of what CS Lewis' narration style in 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader', but if it sounds heavy-handed, I was probably doing it wrong :( Looks like I may have to go over the chapters and revise some of the phrasing when I have time. Thanks!**_

**Fencing Supplies 6/7/12 ch3**

Guess what I dug up,

_"The fridge is locked by a four digit code, something Sanji has asked for many times to stop people (mainly Luffy) from stealing food. This code, "7326", is only known by Sanji, Nami, and Robin. This is because the code is combination of their names. 7 and 3 can be pronounced as "na" and "mi" respectively in Japanese and thus refers to Nami. Likewise, 2 and 6 can be pronounced as "ni" and "ro" respectively and thus refers to the two first syllables of Nico Robin's full name. 3 and 2 can also be pronounced as "san" and "ji" and thus refers to Sanji."_

_**A: That is seriously cool. I've often wondered what the real cipher was, I'm happy to see it's not to far off after all! Thanks for taking the time to let me know!**  
_


	26. The Standing Order

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!**

A Deconstruction, by an author who has finally discovered the joys of writing fanfiction on an iPad.

**Chapter 26: The Standing Order**

* * *

"So this is the infamous Pirate Queen? In truth, I was expecting someone with more... _presence_."

The miserable girl sitting shackled to the chair before the Fleet Admiral did not, indeed, look very impressive. Of course, my saying that Mar currently looked miserable is tantamount to me calling the Grand Line "a little puddle", which is to say, a massive understatement.

"Still not going to say anything are you? What, sea-stone got your tongue?"

Mar just stared unheedingly at the surface of the Fleet Admiral's desk, utterly uncaring of what was going on and what was happening to her. This state, by the way, is called detachment while wallowing in utter depression and despair.

"Suit yourself. It's refreshing to not be interrupted by a bunch of smart-alec subordinates with too much to say anyway. I was going to say though... you look really good for your age, Monkey D. Madelyn. In fact, you still look like you did twenty years ago! I don't suppose you'd share the secret to your youthful looks before we ship you off to Impel down? Between you and me, my wife could use some youngering up."

There was still no response from the girl.

"No? Shame. With charisma like that, how'd you managed to get such big shots to serve under you is a damn mystery."

The fleet admiral gestured at his desk, where the menacing faces of The Disinfector, Gurnarde and Walker looked out at her from their respective posters. An observant onlooker might have noticed that large block letters spelling out the word DECEASED had been stamped all over them.

"Especially that 'Sand-Dragon'. Boy, that mermaid has a real grudge against humanity, probably because we wiped out most of her people during the Battle of Loguetown all those years ago. Most of their remaining army tried to pull some revenge rampages but none ever got far and we thought it'd all settle down. But then seven years ago, that mermaid comes out of nowhere with that partner of hers. I'm not sure why she waited thirteen years, but I heard mermaids only get legs when they're older, maybe that's why— anyway she became a damn nightmare, murdering World Nobles right and left and getting the _Gorosei_ all worked up.

"I lost count of the number of times my units got sent out to hunt her down and came back empty-handed, or de-handed, if they were a mite unluckier. Hell, she was the one who gave me this," he pointed to one of the many scars on his face as he spoke. "There's another one where you can't see from a few years ago, damn near killed me that time. I had to get special homing mines set up to finish her and that fishman off, no way I was going to risk more men on fighting them close range. A mermaid like that who can move on land as fast as she can in the water is something to be afraid of.

"Anyway, they're finally dead, so enough about that." The fleet admiral pulled out an old poster of Trafalgar Law and placed it next to the Disinfector's.

"We really should have figured out earlier The Mad Disinfector was that old timer Trafalgar Law. Still, we just thought he was dead all this time and The Disinfector was the next person who ate the Ope-Ope fruit. Real silly of us now that I think about it. Oh well... I think I'll just go ahead and make that information 'classified'. The world doesn't need to know, eh? I got enough trouble already with your lot making us look like fools over the Imba fiasco."

The old man stopped and reminisced for a while.

"Though I bet that young whippersnapper Imba got the shock of his life when he ran into you lot! He was always dissing the old school Marines and going on and on about his new Justice Age and there he goes versus you and that Law, the last of the Worst Generation of Pirates alive. Well, the last of the free, anyway. And the last of our generation, you know. I would've paid good money to watch that fight."

Mar still did not respond. It didn't seem to matter to the Fleet Admiral, whom this narrator suspects just likes hearing the sound of his own voice. The old man persisted despite Mar's lack of contribution and blithely continued talking.

"Ah, the game was different back then. Pirates and Marines, they don't make them the same anymore. The new generation are now all the same. Stupid-ass strong but about as much character and morals as a den-den mushi's rear end."

The den-den mushi sitting on the desk proceeded to wake up for moment and scowl at the fleet admiral.

"Yeah I know it's my job to catch 'em and pirates like you... but still, it's a shame to see the Pirate Age of Mystery end like this. I miss the colourful characters we used to get back then—"

Mar closed her eyes. It was true. The Straw-Hats, the Heart Pirates, the fish-folk— even the older generation of Marines... they were all gone now.

"—speak of the devil!"

The door to the interrogation room had opened and a marine, a high-ranking one judging by her garb, had entered the room. She wasn't alone, as she had another person in tow, and it was he that the Fleet Admiral was currently staring in astonishment at.

He was certainly worth staring at. Even Mar, who had previously been uninterested in most of what was going on around her, took notice of the newcomer, mainly because he didn't look like anything she had ever seen before. He didn't look human, for one. In fact, he was huge, muscular and green-skinned, and if it wasn't for the fact he was dressed in very human clothes, Mar would have thought he was a non-sentient monster of some sort. Perhaps he was; he strongly reminded her of the villain characters from one of the old saturday morning cartoons her dad was forever trying to get her to watch. Something about a barbarian and his friends fighting a bunch of part-serpent part-humanoid creatures, to which this newcomer bore a striking resemblance.

And yet, despite this his innate distinctiveness, the most arresting feature about him by far, was the 'Hannibal mask'-like muzzle over the lower half of his snouted face. It seemed to be made out of metal and was strapped on tightly, covering the lower half and only leaving a pair of bilious yellow eyes looking out at the world.

The Fleet Admiral jumped to his feet. "What is _he_ doing here, Catti? And why did you bring him in? Didn't I tell you lot I was not to be disturbed? I'm busy interrogating the prisoner, can't you see?"

"Are you sure, Stamper-sir? You seemed to be doing all of the talking from what I could hear," replied the marine officer snidely. "As for the other thing, you'll have to cut the interrogation short. We've got new orders. The Pirate Queen's been sold."

"Sold? _SOLD_? Who says so? To _whom_?"

The officer only pointed at the ceiling and shrugged. "Higher-ups said so. Apparently one of the Tennryubito thought they would like the infamous Pirate Queen as part of their slave collection."

"What the hell were those nincompoops thinking agreeing to this?" The Fleet Admiral was practically foaming at the mouth. "The Pirate Queen should be headed for Impel Down to face Justice! Those noble farts can't just waltz in here and snap up the most high-profile capture we've had all year... no, _decade_, because they feel like displaying them in their damn mansions!"

"Apparently they can. They were very... generous and well, you know what that means," said the marine officer.

"Well, tell them I said no way! Justice is not a farmer's market!" the fleet admiral roared, indignant.

"The higher-ups said you might say something like that. They asked me to remind you where the funding for those new tracker ships of yours came from. Unless you're prepared to foot the bill yourself..." the officer trailed off and smiled.

The Fleet Admiral swore colourfully, but also appeared to admit defeat at this. "Damn those old coots! Justice doesn't have a price tag and they should know it— I suppose that's why you're here," he added snappishly to the muzzled man.

The Muzzled Man remained silent and extended an envelope to the fleet admiral. It was ungraciously snatched out of Muzzled Man's clawed hands and opened.

"We, St. Augustus Magnus, hereby expect our new purchase to be delivered to the care of our emissary immediately," read the Fleet Admiral out loud before turning back to the Muzzled Man. "Hum. So... you got sent to pick up your master's shopping, did you, Red?"

Mar briefly wondered why the Fleet Admiral had called the Muzzled Man 'Red', seeing that he seemed more 'Green' than 'Red'. But the creature did not respond to the jibe, and only stood waiting impassively for the Fleet Admiral's answer, his unsettling amber eyes blankly staring ahead.

The Fleet Admiral sighed. "I see. They shut you off, did they? Considering what you were and what you could have been... How the mighty have fallen, indeed."

"Oh... do I detect some pity for a traitorous criminal there, Fleet Admiral?" the marine officer said at once.

This snapped the old man out of his reverie. "Never you mind. Just take that Pirate Queen and get out of here. Well... what's with _you_?"

Mar had risen to her feet on her own volition, and there was a life in her eyes that hadn't been there before. It did not escape the fleet admiral's notice.

"Don't think you're getting off easy, Pirate Queen. By all accounts, being a slave of St. Magnus' will have you wishing we'd sent you to Impel Down soon enough. As what's left of this poor devil here'll tell if you if he could still speak," the Fleet Admiral said, jerking his thumb at the impassive Red's direction.

Mar did not care. At the mention of St. Magnus' name, a spark of hope had flared to life. By sheer luck Mar realised she was going to end up in St. Magnus' place, the very same Tennryubito's home she had originally planned to break into. Even if she had lost her father and friends, there was a chance she could still find her mother. And as long as there was someone still left worth living for, she wasn't about to give up just yet.

"Tell your master the sea-stone bracelets do not come off," the marine officer said to Red as Mar was led out of the room. "The Pirate Queen's devil-fruit ability is too dangerous, so it must be suppressed at all times. This condition of purchase is only voided if the Pirate Queen is dead."

There was the slightest of nods from the man in acknowledgement of this warning. Mar found it unsettling how easily the Marine officer prattled off such morbid things.

"Of course I'm not entirely sure how you intend to communicate this to your master but I presume he takes that muzzle off when he wants to reward his errand dog or something," the marine officer added. She did seem to take an inordinate amount of pleasure in the humiliation of others.

It was wasted on this particular target however. Red seemed utterly unaware of the jibe. The marine sighed.

"It's just not the same. Guess those controllers really do take all of you away," she said.

Mar's eyes followed the officer's gaze and was startled to notice something about Red that she hadn't noticed before. At the nape of his neck was a metallic device that looked like a half-collar, fused into the flesh itself.

Even if Mar had never seen it before, she was certain she knew what it was. The description Law had given of the horrific puppet-controller device on Chopper had jumped to her mind.

"Yes, take a good look, Pirate Queen," said the marine officer, noticing her gaze. "Get used to the idea. Knowing your master, he'll want to have one fitted on you soon enough, and then you'll end up like poor Red, with nothing of your mind and soul left."

* * *

The journey to St. Magnus' mansion was not an eventful one. In case you wondered, no, Mar did not even attempt to escape. There was a very good reason for it. Two, in fact.

The first and foremost of it all was that she now sported a slave collar, which as you all already know, pretty much prevents you from running off unless you like your head being blown off.

The second was a less obvious. As Mar and Red boarded the sea-train to Mariejois, she soon realised that they weren't alone. The men in black were discreet, but not enough for her not to notice the absence of everyone else who should have been on board. Add to the fact that she did manage to catch glimpses of black blurs flitting around the edges of her vision, it didn't take her long to conclude that even though she was supposed to have been completely surrendered to the care of Red, the Marines were still keeping a close watch on her.

And bereft of her powers, and having no physical combat ability to speak of (unless you count that aforementioned useless karate-blue belt) there was nothing she could do about it. So she wisely kept her eyes open and her mouth shut, settled down on the train seat next to Red and waited.

Under normal circumstances Mar might have enjoyed the sea-train ride. But while the carriage gliding over the surface of the water was not unpleasant, she couldn't help thinking about the fact she was on THE sea-train. And it made her think of Franky, and then the Straw-hats. And then the Sunny and her own crew and her father and...

...well depressing thoughts that made her eyes tear up again.

Mar was in danger of sliding into self-pity mode when there was a slight nudge at her elbow. She started and looked around, but there was no one but Red sitting by her side, and his eyes were blankly staring into the distance as he paid no attention to her. She was about to wonder if the touch had been accidental or if she had imagined it, when she felt the nudge again and looked down.

At first Mar thought it was a snake, and then she realised it was simply Red's prehensile tail (and the fact that he had a tail!). But what immediately attracted her attention next was a slip of paper that had been discreetly dropped onto the seat between them. She was about to turn around and reach for it when the tail wagged warningly, then in a single deft motion, flicked the folded paper into her hand.

The action shocked her. This was not something she expected from a supposedly mind-wiped person. Which meant...

As if to confirm her suspicion, Red half-turned and gave her a side-look that she took to mean that she should read the note, but in such a way that it would not be obvious. She couldn't think of a better way to do it, so she pretended to sob into her hands, and read the concealed note about an inch from her face instead.

The note was very to the point.

_Do not try to run, they are watching. When we arrive, keep your head down and do not cry, stare, or speak unless spoken to. Follow my cues and you won't get killed. Do not let on I told you._

With a jolt, Mar realised not only did Red have more of his mind left than he had let on, he also was bent on keeping the same fact concealed. Still, when you are alone and in a hostile place, the idea of a potentially friendly face, even a covert one from someone who would in normal circumstances scare you, is definitely welcome. So Mar ended her false sob-fest, and carefully avoiding looking at Red, gave a cautious little nod.

Red did not acknowledge her response, but Mar knew he understood because his eyes had, for a moment, lost their glassy blank gaze, darted toward her direction, before resuming the thousand-yard stare again.

They did not interact again for the duration of the journey, because the CP9 was watching, and they both knew it.

* * *

It was not until after the the sea-train pulled into Mariejois station and the two slaves were on a private coach bound for St. Magnus' mansion, did Mar get another chance to talk to Red.

The coach had been sent for them by St. Magnus, and came with its own set of guards. This seemed to have satisfied the CP9, because they dropped all pretense of concealment, and openly left with the departing sea-train.

As soon as the Puffing Tom pulled away with a shrill whistle, Mar saw her chance.

"Mr. Red, where we're going, is there a slave that looks a lot like me but older?" she whispered.

Red cautiously checked if the guards were paying attention, before nodding his head. Mar felt her hopes rise for a moment, but then Red held up one clawed finger, shook his head, held up all his fingers, and nodded again.

It was all Mar could do not to stare at the man in confusion.

* * *

Much too soon, they arrived at their destination. Mar took Red's advice to heart, and kept quiet and subdued as they were led into the impressive-looking building. Mar was of the opinion it looked more like a museum than an actual dwelling. It certainly seemed to have the an ostentatious number of security posts and personnel that would have been befitting of one.

They were met by the head servant, who snobbishly greeted them with: "Ah so the retrieving hound returns. You have the new addition with you, Red?"

Red mutely handed over a bundle of documents, which Mar presumed were her purchase papers.

"So this is the famed 'Pirate Queen'?" the head servant sniffed, looking her over. "Seems a bit overpriced. Can't imagine why the Masters are so very anxious to see her, but they've ordered that she be sent straight up to their room. They're leaving for St. Shulalia's soon, else the new girl would normally have to be made presentable first."

Mar wasn't sure what she should be doing but a flick of Red's tail indicated that she should follow the head servant. They were duly led through the mansion, the insides of which were decadently opulent and seemingly consisted of long halls of glass display cases filled with myriad strange objects and what looked like mannequins.

St. Magnus was a collector of many things, it seemed.

Mar tried her best to follow Red's warning, but she found herself sorely tested when they entered another room full of display cases, which a female slave was in the process of wiping down. Even from the back Mar could see that the slave was an older woman with long black hair just like her mother's.

Mar felt her breath catch in her throat. Could it be her mother? Should she try and discreetly get the slave's attention somehow?

The woman sensed their entry and turned around to face them. Mar caught a glimpse of the slave's face and a wave of disappointment washed over her.

It wasn't her mother.

Superficially the woman did resemble her somewhat, but the face was all wrong. In any case, the woman showed no recognition of Mar and resumed wiping the glass case, which would have never been the case with her real mother.

As they proceeded deeper into the mansion, Mar couldn't help but feel weirded out when quickly she discovered that without exception, every female slave in place shared the same physical features: hair, skin, height and build. It was also then she also recalled something Squall had said about St. Magnus.

_"...this certain Tennryubito had a standing order arrangement with every one of the retailers for the past two decades. Women of a certain description were to be offered to him..."_

Mar wondered what kind of person St. Magnus must be to have such specific requirements for his slaves. She was soon to find out, because they had reached the Master's room at last.

Red entered on being commanded to, and silently took up position just inside the door, his head bowed low.

Mar noted that the head-servant did not give her any instruction on how she should act when presented before The Tenryubito. In fact, he was sporting a rather bloodthirsty grin that made her wonder if he was secretly hoping she would get killed by displeasing her new master.

Well, she wasn't going to oblige him.

_Keep your head down, don't stare, don't cry, don't make any unnecessary sound..._ Mar chanted in her head as she was led into an even more opulent room. Her bare feet sunk deep into the lush carpet, and she was dimly aware that somewhere before her, sat two imposing figures draped in sparkling finery.

"Great St. Magnus and Lady St. Magda, your special purchase has arrived. I present to you... The Pirate Queen."

"Very good, Custodian. My Daughter, here is the gift as requested. Do you find it to your liking?" St. Magnus' voice was deep and cruel. The very sound of it sent shivers to Mar's heart.

There was a rustle of silk skirts as the female Tenryubito moved forward for a closer inspection. "Yes, my Daddy," she replied. "You are the most magnanimous of fathers."

At the sound of St. Magda's voice, despite Red's warning, Mar gasped involuntarily and looked up. "M—"

The response was immediate. A sharp blow to her face sent her reeling to the floor.

"Insolent slave!" thundered St. Magda. "How dare you lift your head to face your masters when we have not given you permission!"

"Insolent indeed!" said St. Magnus. "This trash needs to be taught a lesson, My Daughter. Or perhaps we should get her fixed. It did wonders for Red."

Face-down on the carpet with a throbbing cheek, Mar quaked in fear. It was clear that by 'fixed' St. Magnus meant the controller implant. The idea of that was terrifying enough but then there was also the issue of St. Magda. Mar had recognised her voice. And when St. Magda spoke again shortly, it left no doubt to her true identity.

"But the controllers are so ugly and would mar her looks, My Daddy. Just let me discipline her for half an hour and I'll have her broken and obedient."

"Very well, Magda dear, but don't spend too long playing with your new purchase. We are supposed to be leaving for Shulalia's in an hour for the tour."

With that, the Tennryubito left the room, motioning for Red to remain.

"Red, stand guard outside and close the door. Make sure we are not disturbed," ordered St. Magda. The slave obeyed, leaving the two of them alone.

The door closed behind him, the sound of the lock echoing through the vast room. Mar felt another stab of internal conflict as the rustle of silk indicated St. Magda was standing right above her. But before she could think over whether she wanted to risk looking up again, she found herself being pulled to her feet by St. Magda and then hugged tightly by a pair of shaking hands.

"Marie, are you all right? I am so sorry I hit you, but I had to stop you from giving me away... If he suspects I'm not his daughter we'll both be killed... He is mad and completely heartless. Do you understand? Marie?"

Mar's head was spinning, and overwhelmed, she was only able to mutter a single word:

_"M-mom?"_

* * *

**End of Chapter 26**

* * *

_**A/N: Huh, I wonder how many people thought it was going to be Madelyn?**_

_**Slight change of plan, folks! I'm aiming to finish this fic first, so for those of you waiting on TABCF or Supernova Eleven, please be patient. I'm working on them on the side, but I'm on a roll for this fic, and I want to make the most of it while it lasts. **_

_**As for the regular readers of this fic, thank you so much for your feedback and support! I do appreciate your feedback on my writing, negative or positive. So keep reading/reviewing, it really helps to keep me working away at it!**_

* * *

**Q and A:**

* * *

**Guest 7/5/12 . chapter 25**

Try as I might, I am unable to wrap my mind around the storing up Mar's powers concept. It's very un-Mary Sue like that her logic warping powers have their pitiful limit (hence the heart-stopping, eye-bulging, painfully suspenseful cliffhanger), but what exactly must she do to "store it up?"

_**A: Basically it works like this: if Mar sees an illogical situation before her, she can exert her logic power to 'correct' it and enforce a logical outcome. When she does so, she gains 'illogic', which adds to her power reserve. When she warps a logical situation to become illogical, it uses up her stored 'illogic', and if she runs out she can no longer warp things to become illogical. I hope that makes it clearer :)**_


	27. What Makes A Monster

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!**

A Deconstruction, in which an obvious connection is made obvious.

**Chapter 27: What Makes a Monster**

* * *

The problem with telling a story from just one person's perspective is that you tend to make it sound like your protagonist is the only one that stuff happens to at all. Which if you stop to think about it, is a bit silly. People move and operate independently of each other. And in this case, it should be apparent that while Mar and her father had been going through the adventures of the last ten chapters or so, Mar's mother had been having some adventures of her own too.

"Thank goodness we managed to get to you in time," Mar's mother said to Mar as she pulled away their embrace to get a better look at her. "I've been following the news about you and your father. When I heard you'd been captured I feared you'd be sent off to that dreadful Prison Down place, but I managed to convince Him to buy you. It was the only way to save you I could think of."

Mar felt a rush of gratitude. So it hadn't been coincidence that St. Magnus had bought her after all. But the next sentence her mother uttered filled her with dread.

"Marie, I need to know... what happened to your father? I tried to search for him too, but I couldn't find any information on him, just that there were no other survivors... It-it's not true is it?"

Heart sinking, Mar told her of what had happened.

While she spoke, her mother attempted to appear calm, but when Mar told of how Squall nearly shelled Hawker Island with them on it, her mother turned as white as a sheet. By the time they got to the sinking of the _Sunny_ and losing her father, her mother dropped all pretense of keeping a stiff upper lip and wept openly.

It was the first time she'd seen her mother cry like that. It also made Mar feel like an idiot for ever wondering if her mother truly loved her father.

"I'm sorry, I've wasted our precious time," her mother said after a while, finally managing to pull herself together with some comforting from Mar. "Stupid of me, we have so little of it too."

"Mom, it's okay... but I don't understand what's going on. Why are you being treated like the Tenryuubito's daughter?"

"Long story short: that Tenryuubito lost his daughter many years ago. I think he may be rather... unhinged over it. He buys women who look like his daughter and trains them to impersonate her to keep up some sort of masquerade so no one knows she's missing."

"So you're the one impersonating her now?"

Her mother wiped away the last of her tears and gave a little sad smile. "Well in my case it's a bit different. It started off that way but now he's... somehow become convinced I'm the real one."

"He _is_? But _how_?"

"Well, he's not entirely sane, and I'm rather good with people, you know," was what her mother said in response.

Which was true, Mar recalled. Even back home, her charismatic mother always did have a knack for reading people and then getting her way with them. Which was great for the PR work she did; she was forever making calls to various people from her seemingly inexhaustible network of contacts. In fact, the only person she ever seemed to have trouble charming completely was Mar's father, which made it all the more perplexing how they ever got married and then stayed that way.

A soft thumping came from outside the door. Her mother turned at the sound and frowned. Mar wondered if it was Red utilising that tail of his again and if it was some sort of pre-arranged signal between the slave and her mother,

"I am almost out of time. Marie, listen: As long as that Tenryuubito remains convinced that I am his daughter, I will have enough influence to protect the both of us. So you must not let anyone know the real relationship between us. Our lives depend on it."

Mar nodded. Her mother smiled a little.

"That's my girl. I know it is unfair to ask more of you, but you must be brave until I come back."

"You're going away?"

"Only for a little while. He wants to go on a tour to 'prove' to the other Tenryuubitos that 'St. Magda' isn't going to be a recluse any more. I promised to go along with it in exchange for him buying you."

Considering Mar had just been reunited with her mother, it was hard news to accept. She must have looked crestfallen, because her mother immediately reached out a hand and gently brushed Mar's hair out of her face, and said:

"I know the past weeks have been hard, Marie. But it will be all right." A look, almost desperate, crossed her face. "We've lost your father but _I will not lose you_. I have a plan to get us out of here. Just stay safe until I get back."

The Mar of a few weeks ago would have probably pouted, cried and acted like a child. But the current Mar had gotten so used to having the Logic-Logic fruit that even with its effects suppressed, her mind continued thinking the same way out of habit. So she understood the dangerous game her mother was playing, saw how hard it was for her mother, and resolved she would not be a bigger risk than she already was.

"I'll be fine, Mom. Please be careful out there."

Her mother looked pleasantly surprised at her calm acceptance of the situation.

"I will," her mother said, as the soft thumping at the door began anew. "I have to go now. Trust Red, but watch out for the Custodian, he's been suspicious of us."

Mar nodded, mentally noting that this was what the head servant was called and her initial assessment of him had been quite accurate.

"Be brave, sweetheart. Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it."

Mar couldn't help but recall that Gurnarde too, had said something rather similar, but she had never returned. Still, Mar wisely decided to keep her mouth shut and tried to shake off the feeling of foreboding as once again, she let herself be separated from her mother.

* * *

After the masters had departed, the Custodian, (with some distaste) informed her St. Magda had given specific instructions that she, Mar, was to spend her time cleaning St. Magda's bedroom. This was no trivial task as the bedroom was easily the size of their former house.

All the same, Mar reflected that she had never been so glad to do housework. It was her mother's way of protecting her of course. Spending most of her time shut up in her mother's room ensured any interaction with the Custodian or anyone seeking to take advantage of her was kept to a minimum.

It was also incredibly boring. Which was not necessarily a bad thing as it gave Mar some time to think over the situation she was in.

Ever since she had arrived and found her mother, something had been niggling at her. And now that she had time to think about it, it was positively... _weird_. What were the chances of there being so many people in this world that looked exactly like Mar and her mother, anyway?

At first Monkey D. Madelyn... Now Saint Magda—

It was then when the obvious truth hit her.

_Magda..._

_Magdalene..._

_**Madelyn**._

No doubt you, Clever Reader, will have made that connection a long time ago. You'll have to excuse Mar's slowness in doing the same. Remember, she didn't have the logic fruit to help her. But she got there eventually, which was the important thing.

"Monkey D. Madelyn is the real St. Magda!" Mar gasped aloud to the shelf of books she was in the process of wiping.

It all made sense now. Those two were clearly the same person; the timelines even matched. St. Magda had disappeared many years ago, hadn't she? And by Robin's account Madelyn had suddenly appeared out of nowhere...

It was so _obvious_! Why hadn't anyone else realised?

Calming down a little, Mar reflected that St. Magnus' measures of setting up impersonators and shushing the disappearance had probably muddled things somewhat. It had been a well-kept household secret after all.

"Still, I know Madelyn's real identity. And I always knew she wasn't Luffy's sister after all," Mar said to herself with some satisfaction as she removed a row of expensive-looking books from the shelf so she could wipe the inside.

A large piece of paper, folded into quarters, slipped out and fell to the floor. Mar picked it up and was about to place it on top of the stack of books, but stopped short. The coarse quality of the paper seemed rather out of place with the sumptuous surroundings. Curious, Mar unfolded the large sheet and looked at its printed contents.

If she had any doubt about Magda being Madelyn, it vanished then. It also prompted her to look more closely at the books she had found the paper in. They weren't just any books; plastered across the covers in giant letters were variants of the message:

**Magda's Secret Diary, DO NOT READ.**

It gave Mar a rather uncomfortable recollection that she herself had written something rather similar on the cover of her own diary. Still, she did what any teenage girl would do on getting her hands on the diaries of her arch-enemy: she read them.

* * *

Hours later, Mar sat in a daze on the floor, excerpts from the diary still replaying in her head. She knew Madelyn now. Not as an enigmatic figure or a name, but as a person, and it had been nothing but eye-opening.

The first diary Mar opened looked to be one written when Magda was quite young. Now for the sake of not blinding you all I'm not going to read out the entries in the diary exactly as they were written. Trust me, you'll prefer my translated version better, as the first entry started with: "dere diery, i haf desided two kip a sikrit diery..."

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_I am ten today. Daddy gave me a gift, my own bodyguard. He says I should have one of my own just in case a jealous fishman like the Tigerfish attacks Mariejois again._

_The bodyguard's name is Cree. Daddy says he used to be a Marine._

_I like Cree, he talks to me different from everyone and he tells me stories about things outside Mariejois._

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_I decided I wanted a new pet. So Daddy got me a mermaid. Her name is Tikki. She's five years old and has a yellow tail with spots and she's a boxfish mermaid._

_But she cries all the time. I hope she stops soon because it's booooring._

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_Today, Cree told me about the time he fought the Sun Pirates. They are a group of pirates who are all fishmen._

_I told him I have my own mermaid now. He didn't believe me and laughed._

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_Cree is a jerk and a meanie!_

_I showed Tikki to him and he got all upset and said that 'she's just a kid'. Then he said while enslaving criminal pirates was one thing, kids like Tikki shouldn't have been taken and it was wrong._

_He hurt my feelings. I don't like him any more._

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_I told My Daddy what Cree said. He got angry and said that Tikki was just a fish, and if Cree didn't have anything nice to say to me he shouldn't have said anything at all._

_So you see, Diary, It's Cree's fault! _

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_Cree apologised to me today._

_Daddy made him do it. He had Cree stand in front of the piranha tank and said if he didn't beg me for forgiveness, he'd throw both him and Tikki in._

_After Cree apologised, Daddy threw Tikki in anyway. It was funny watching her swimming around trying to get away from the piranhas. But Cree didn't laugh._

_He only laughed later when all the piranhas suddenly started acting weird and went belly-up. Daddy was hopping mad and told the other guards to take him away._

_He also said he was going to return Tikki to the shop because she's poisonous, but he'll buy me a new mermaid to make up for it._

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_Daddy went off to Sabaody and left me alone with the servants. They're all boring and don't dare to say anything to me other that 'Yes, mistress!'._

_I got bored and went to see Cree in his cell. He looked kinda surprised to see me._

_I told him I missed his stories, and if he hadn't been mean to me all this wouldn't have happened. He just said he didn't care what happened to him anymore, he'd stood up against what was wrong now that he'd seen for himself what Mariejois really was like._

_I tried to explain to him why it wasn't wrong for us. __I told him what Daddy always told me— we're Tenryuubito and we have the right to do whatever we want because we have more rights than common people. If it weren't for us forming the world government all those hundreds of years ago there wouldn't be a world in the first place and that's why everyone owes us._

_Cree just looked at me and couldn't think of anything to say for a while. _ _When he finally spoke again he asked me if I really believed that and of course I said yes._

_He actually had the nerve to shake his head at me! So I got mad at him at told him he was just an ignorant commoner who didn't know anything. But he just shook his head again and asked me if I had ever been out of my Daddy's house without being surrounded by a whole bunch of guards._

_I told him I'd never done it even with a whole bunch of guards._

_And then, if you will believe it, Diary, he actually looked sorry for me. Him, a commoner, sorry for me, a Tenryuubito!_

_I was going to yell at him again, but then he asked me if I wanted to hear one last story. Since I was bored, I said yes._

_'I've had a good life, Magda,' he said to me. 'I've always dreamed of seeing the world. I explored the South Blue and the Grand Line, and I only took on this job because I wanted to see what Mariejois was like. I've seen many things most people who never leave their homes never even had dreams of.'_

_Then I asked him why would people would even want to have dreams. He just looked sorry for me again._

_'You have everything you could possibly want, except for a real dream of your own. I don't know how you can live like that. What makes one day different from the next for you, then, if you have nothing to strive for, no purpose?'_

_I told him I didn't understand what he meant and to just tell me the story already._

_'Very well. One last one to end it all, and in a way, the only one that could be the right one to tell in this situation. The story I'm going to tell you is about a dream. A crazy dream shared by many pirates: the story of the fabled treasure 'One Piece', and the death Gold Roger, the Pirate King...'_

(Of course, you all know this story already, so I'm just going to skip the rest of this entry and jump to the next.)

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_I couldn't sleep last night. I kept thinking about the Pirate King story and what Cree said about me not having a dream being sad._

_At first I thought he was being stupid but since I kept thinking about it still, I thought I'd go and ask for more details._

_But when I went down to his cell it was empty. The warden said my Daddy had returned and sent for him._

_I went to see Daddy. He said the shop didn't have any other mermaids but he did get a new tank full of trigger-sharks and he'd just been testing them out._

_I asked him what happened to Cree. Daddy just smiled and said he'd been sent on a long walk off a short plank and I wouldn't see him again._

_I guess Daddy sent him away. I kinda wish I could have talked to him before he left, but guess I'll have to figure it out on my own now._

* * *

Now, being much older than Magda was when she wrote those entries, Mar immediately discerned the truth between the lines, and was chilled by the candid narration of such horrific events.

I wish I could say that _that_ was the only such incident of that sort in Magda's sordid history, but it was not. It was, however, the one that had any real importance, which was why I chose to narrate it to you.

Now let us jump ahead to another volume of Magda's diary. The most recent one, in fact. You can tell she was much older at this point, because her language had thankfully improved and so had her writing.

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_That snot-nosed Charloss was making eyes at me all through Shalulia's birthday party. Disgusting. Definitely not going to pay any attention to him when they come over to my birthday party next week._

_Shalulia tried to rub it in that they were going to Sabaody for shopping day after tomorrow. That bitch _ _knows that Daddy's too busy to go and he won't let me go alone until I'm eighteen._

_I have no idea what I'm going to do till next week. Be bored to death I suppose._

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_You'll never believe what happened! A bunch of pirates took Shalulia, Charloss and their dad Roswald hostage while they were at the Sabaody Auction House! Charloss got socked in the face, serve the fat pig right. Even Shalulia got knocked out. Ha ha ha!_

_I can hear Daddy yelling on the den-den mushi about security for the mansion. I guess he won't ever let me go to Sabaody now but I have to say I am curious who would dare to do that to us, really. Must be quite the maniac._

* * *

_The papers are all over the incident. They even have pictures of the pirates that did it. Apparently they're three out of this extra awesome group of rookie pirates called the Supernovas._

_The guy who punched pig-face Charloss is a kid my age, if you can believe it! His wanted poster doesn't even look scary. He's even got a funny name: Monkey D. Luffy._

_The other two pirates seem a bit more like what I thought pirates would be like. One's this clown-like guy called Kid, and the other one..._

_...I don't know what to say, Diary. The moment I saw his picture I felt this chill up my spine and my heart just jumped like crazy. I've never felt like this before, but even from the picture I could feel his eyes boring into mine, and the look on his face made me feel like the was this fire burning in my..._

(This went for several paragraphs. I didn't find any of it worth repeating, so let's just skip this part.)

_...his name is Trafalgar Law, also known as 'The Surgeon of Death'. Doesn't it just roll off your tongue? Even his name is cool._

_Why aren't there Tenryuubito men like that? Instead they're all fat and stuffy and not dreamy at all._

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_I can't sleep and I can't even eat properly. I keep thinking about that pirate surgeon._

_I've been reading everything about him I could get my hands on. I even got a poster, he looks better there than in the paper._

_I can't stop staring at it._

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_It's my birthday. I really didn't feel like a party but I had to go through with it._

_Daddy gave me what I said I wanted for my birthday: a devil fruit. I told him I wanted to start a collection and he said he was glad I decided to join him in that hobby._

_What he doesn't know is I plan to eat it. I've been reading the news and all those pirates seem to have a devil-fruit. My Law has one, so I want to have one too._

_I'm going to do it tonight. Happy Birthday to me._

* * *

_I can't stop seeing them!_

_After I ate that horrible fruit I can see it all whenever I look at their faces. It doesn't matter whether it's a real face or a picture, I can see it all and it's all so bleak._

_The slaves only want to go home._

_The servants only want money out of us._

_As for the rest, they don't have any. Not any real ones. Even Daddy... It's all empty. Meaningless!_

_The only ones that I could feel, really feel, were those from the wanted posters._

_Can you believe it, Diary? They all want to find One Piece and become the Pirate King. Luffy, Kid, and my Law. Just like that story I heard from my old bodyguard long ago._

_It's so beautiful. To be free, sailing across the ocean. With only adventure to look forward to..._

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_Daddy is too busy with his collection to notice anything is wrong. Not that he ever really cared anyway._

_I don't want to stay in this gilded cage any more. I have decided, I'm going to be the Queen of the Pirates! I'm going to be the next Supernova. I'm going to be part of their world. The New World!_

_That Monkey pirate boy wishes he knew what it was like to have a sister. I shall use my powers grant him that. I shall leave Mariejois and venture into the real world._

_And I'll find people who will love me because of who I am, not because I'm a Tenryuubito. I'll find my true soulmate in Law and we will be together forever._

_St. Magda is no more. From now I will be—_

"—Madelyn," Mar said out loud as she finished the last entry. She took a deep breath as she examined the rest of the diary. On the last page, a single wanted poster of Monkey D. Luffy had been stuck between the pages.

"So... that's how it all started. She used her powers and insinuated herself into their lives and memories."

Mar looked again at the large sheet of paper that had fallen out earlier. It, too, was also an old wanted poster. This one was of Trafalgar Law, magnificent and in the prime of his life.

She closed her eyes and remembered how Law had been back in the _Sunny's_ infirmary: a shadow of his former self with failing health and that terrible, haunted, look in his eyes— eyes that had seen to many horrors to count.

Then she looked at the picture on Luffy's bounty poster. The happy and carefree grin, the same straw hat that until the sinking of the _Sunny_, she herself had been so honoured to carry around. So much hope, so much joy for life. Gone with the swish of an executioner's blade, despite the dear and desperate efforts of his crew and allies.

A surge of pity and anger rose up within her. _All those dreams, destroyed and wasted... All because of that one selfish, spoiled child!_

"Hey, I don't know if you made it out alive with my Dad or not," Mar found herself saying to Law's poster. "But if I ever see Madelyn, or when she comes to get me, I'm going to find a way use my powers again, somehow."

Her fists clenched as she hardened her resolve.

"And you know what? I'm going to make it so that she never ever messed up all your lives. I owe you all at least that much."

* * *

**End of Chapter 27**

* * *

_**A/N: I presume I'm going to get another slew of "Hah! I knew it!"s from those of you who guessed what was coming up on several different points. **_

_**Good calls, especially those of you who guessed Madelyn's real origin before we even got to this part. (dartya, you need to give your plot prediction powers more credit, you were spot on ;) )**_

_**Thanks for all the wonderful reviews you all left for the last chapter. They definitely encouraged me to work harder on this one! (which is why it came out so quick!)**_

_****__**I'm super excited about this story, I really look forward to writing the next few chapters.**_ _**So keep reviewing, don't forget to let me know if you see and errors, and let me know what you think!**_

**_Cheers, -P_**


	28. XX

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!**

A Deconstruction, which likes to play with chapter titles, roman numerals, and lame puns.

**Chapter 28: XX**

* * *

While filled with excitement at her discovery of Monkey D. Madelyn's true identity, Mar was forced to come back down to earth soon enough. After all, unless she found some way to get out of her sea-stone bracelets and free herself, she wasn't going to be able to make use of her new-found information to correct anything.

Still, her mind was busy as she went through her cleaning tasks. Madelyn was still somewhere out there. How could she, Mar, possibly find her?

She supposed that she could just opt to wait for Madelyn to come to her. If the Disinfector's threat hadn't scared that woman off, that was.

Her musing was interrupted when she heard a movement outside the room. Mar immediately tried to look as busy at work as possible.

It was a good thing she did, because the door opened and in tromped the Custodian, the same disgusted sneer on his face as when he had left.

"You, girl. Drop what you're doing and come with me."

Mar looked at the Custodian with uncertainty, but under the current circumstances she had no choice but to obey.

He led her away from the bedroom wing to the central part of the sprawling mansion again. This was where the series of interconnected rooms filled with glass cases were. This time, the area seemed deserted.

"I know something's going on," The Custodian said suddenly, his voice echoing through the deserted halls creepily. "The Master has had many Magdas for the past twenty years, but he has never treated any like he treats this one. He thinks his one his real daughter."

He made a disgusted sound.

"This one has done something... You are part of it, aren't you, girl? Why is that Magda so anxious to have you? What are you to her?" he asked suspiciously, swinging around a strange-looking stick as he did so.

Mar kept her head low and hoped that the Custodian wasn't expecting an answer. Fortunately, while he seemed to be looking at her closely for a reaction, he didn't treat her continuing silence as disobedience, although he was playing with that stick-thing in a way that made her nervous.

After passing through several of the collection chambers they arrived at the largest room of them all. Here the Custodian gave the order to stop.

The room, while larger, was like the others, and completely filled with glass display cases. At first glance Mar thought they were filled with mannequins. But a closer look showed that their contents were significantly more macabre:

_"Dead people."_

The correct term to use here would actually be 'cadaver', but that word wasn't in Mar's vocabulary, so she might have sounded more melodramatic than intended. In addtion, the word 'people' was also a bit of a misnomer, as while the cadavers were humanoid, by no means could they be called 'people'. At least, not in the normal sense. It took Mar several seconds to realise the room was full of dead mer-folk and fishmen, all on display as though they were stuffed animals. With horror, she almost expected to see Walker and Gurnarde somewhere in there as well, but much to her relief, all of the faces in the cases were unfamiliar.

The largest of the displays was situated in the center of the room, and inside was a massive fishman— no, merman, Mar corrected herself. Unlike the females of the species, mermen seemed to have more fishy features in their upper halves, and this one looked to be some sort of scary-looking spotted shark merman with long flowing blue hair. Next to the case was a standing ladder. There was also a pail and some cleaning equipment on the floor next to it.

"The slave who normally cleans this room fell off the ladder, clumsy oaf, and cracked the pane on the Mer-King's display. This displeased the Master and he had her fed to his pet trigger-sharks this morning," the Custodian announced.

Sure enough, there were bloodstains on the floor. Mar shuddered, then looked at the glass panel next to the ladder and noted the damage to it.

"You are replacing her today. Clean the mess up."

Much to Mar's relief, the Custodian left the room after that.

* * *

It was rather creepy being in that room alone with all the dead fish-folk, but it was still preferable to being in there alone with the Custodian. Even the giant merman-king didn't look so scary anymore. In fact, on second impression, he looked quite handsome actually, just in a rather inhuman, slightly grotesque kind of way. He rather reminded her of Gurnarde, who somehow managed to look scary, savage and beautiful all at the same time.

Thinking about Gurnarde and Walker made her miserable however, and only reinforced her feeling of loneliness and helplessness, as if the cold gnawing of the sea-stone bands on her wrists was not enough. But worry not, I'm not going to spend more time narrating the angst and just say that thankfully, Mar shook herself out of it and forced herself to get to work.

Mar had just finished scrubbing out the bloodstain on the floor when, Red, who was carrying a very large, flat parcel, entered the room.

If he was surprised to find her there, he didn't show it much. He simply stopped next to her, put down his burden, and began unpacking it. Mar did notice his eyes flicker over to her for a moment and wondered if her mother had asked him to keep on eye on her. She had said to trust him, after all. Perhaps he was in on her plan to escape the place or something.

But before she had a chance to say anything, the Custodian returned.

"Make sure you don't break that new pane, Red," he called out lazily.

The slave nodded and continued working at his task.

"Hey you, you're taking too long! Didn't I give you plenty of time to get this done already?" the Custodian snapped, turning his attention to Mar. "Lazy wench!"

Mar immediately stepped up her work pace, but that didn't seem enough to satisfy the Custodian. She heard his footsteps coming closer and the hairs of her arm began standing on end. The next moment, there was a painful shock, accompanied by a horrible crackling sound.

Most people who've been hit by an electric shock for the first time tend to take several moments to realise what just happened to them. Mar was no exception. By the time she got her wits together and figured out the stick the Custodian was holding was actually a something like a taser or a cattle prod, he was already advancing on her for a second strike.

"I'll work! I'll work hard!" she said as quickly as she could in order to pacify the head-servant. "Please don't—!"

"Don't like the feel of that, do you?" the Custodian said with a cruel laugh, raising the shock prod high. "Finally making some noise, I see. Well, why don't you tell me what that false Magda is up to then?"

"I don't know!" Mar said honestly, inwardly glad her mother hadn't told her of any of their escape plans. Then she decided that since she was supposed to play the part of terrified slave-girl she might as well go the whole way. "I'm just a lowly slave, the Mistress doesn't tell me anything!"

A vein on the Custodian's forehead twitched. Apparently her acting skills were not up to par.

"Don't give me any of your little lies and games," he growled. With alarm Mar noted that his hand had reached for some kind of dial setting on the shock prod. "_I_ know _you_ know," he added insistently, cranking up the dial as he did so.

Even as the Custodian threatened, Mar could see Red's back, which had stiffened. This was not going well.

"I don't have the patience to slowly beat the truth out of you, trash. This thing is set on maximum. A scrawny little girl like yourself'll probably die in a hit or two. So if you don't want to die, you'd better start talking."

"But I don't know anything..." Mar tried to plead, but the Custodian remained unmoved.

Desperate, Mar racked her mind for a lie, anything to buy her some time. But the fear was hampering her ability to be creative. And the Custodian just kept advancing, swinging the stick menacingly.

"I'm still not hearing what I want to hear..." he said shortly, and he brought the weapon crashing down on her.

The reflexes she had gained from her earlier adventures kicked into action. Before Mar even realised what she was doing, she had rolled away, dodging the blow and putting her out of the Custodian's reach.

She heard the Custodian's yell of rage at her unexpected display of defiance. Mar hadn't really intended to be defiant, but the man had told her that a hit from that shock-stick would probably be lethal and _her mother had told her to stay alive_. Acting the obedient little slave wouldn't save her now— the Custodian, just like every other person in this seemingly reason-forsaken world, was absolutely, stark-raving, mad. And because of his suspicions of her mother, he was now simply looking for an excuse to kill Mar.

So Mar ran for her life, the next few minutes of which felt absolutely surreal. It might have even been funny if it all wasn't so grim— but round and round the base of the giant Mer-King's display case the two of them circled, like children playing a nightmarish game of tag.

Fortunately, the Custodian was old and lacked Mar's nimbleness, and so she managed to keep out of his reach. Unfortunately, he soon realised the futility of trying to catch her that way, and being out of breath, stopping chasing and pulled out his trump card.

Mar froze the moment she realised what it was. Of course he would have _it_. If it was that easy to escape the Custodian, more slaves would have done it already, wouldn't they?

"Enough of this," the Custodian said, holding up a controller. The savvy reader will immediately recognise this as the detonator for a slave's collar. Mar's slave collar, to be exact.

"If I can't get anything out of you, maybe that false Magda will be more forthcoming. She will be upset when I tell her you tried to run away and got blown up for your stupidity, won't she?"

"No! Wait! I'll tell—"

But it was too late. With one hand holding the detonator, the Custodian brought the heel of his other hand, which was still holding the shock stick, down on the contoller button.

It never made contact.

A pair of large, clawed hands had intercepted the Custodian mid-action, preventing him from triggering the detonator. Looking up, the head-servant found himself looking into a pair of ringed yellow eyes, which were glaring fiercely back at him.

"Red..."

Anyone in the Custodian's position at the moment would have been forcibly reminded of just how much more intimidating the slave's towering physique was, especially when compared to the rotund Custodian himself. They would have also realised, from that very action, that Red was no longer being fully controlled by his implant and had some measure of free will. But instead of freaking out, the Custodian simply smiled, and said in a sing-song voice:

_"Got you."_

It was at that moment when everything fell into place and Mar realised it had all been a setup. She had never really been the Custodian's target. _Red_ was, and the conniving old man had been deliberately threatening her to trick Red into revealing himself.

The same thought appeared to have occured to Red himself, and for a moment, the slave hesitated. It was all the opening the Custodian needed. Talking advantage of Red's faltering grip, the old man wrenched the hand holding the shock-stick free and fully discharged it into Red's exposed chest. There was a muffled roar and the acrid smell of burning flesh. Mar could only watch in horror as Red crashed to the ground, twitching and convulsing horribly.

"Filthy beast," The Custodian prodded, then kicked the incapacitated man before gloating further. "You running dogs just can't unlearn your old tricks can you? Should have continued playing dumb and let that trash die. Now let's see what you've been up to."

Now that she was no longer of any use to him, the Custodian flippantly turned his back on Mar and starting searching Red's pockets. He gave a shout of triumph before long.

"Been stealing, have you, Red?" He held up a single key that he had found. "Master must have been careless leaving this around, thinking you were still mindless. But you're not anymore, are you? Did the false Magda do something to the controller settings? Did she put you up to stealing for her? Answer me!"

How exactly did he expect Red to answer with the muzzle on would have given Mar a headache if she still didn't have the sea-stone bands on. But the Custodian was clearly not in a rational state of mind, and Mar was left to watch helplessly as the Custodian administered several more kicks before cruelly applying his shock-weapon again.

Red's ensuing cry of pain galvanised her into action. She snatched up the closest object— the half-empty bucket of soapy water she had used for cleaning, and hurled it at the Custodian.

In hindsight, Mar would reflect it was not exactly the smartest thing she had ever done. By good fortune however, it worked out very well in this case, because not only did the impact of the bucket make old man drop everything he was holding, it also drenched him with the filthy water. Now as for why this would be a good thing, let me remind everyone that wet and electricity don't mix. And while it would have been poetic justice for the Custodian to have electrocuted himself, he unfortunately seemed to know this, for he made no attempt to use the shock stick again. Instead, he gave Mar a cold glare and pulled a baby den-den mushi out of his pocket.

"Security, this Custodian. Send a team to the Mer-King's room at once. We have a situation—"

He never finished the message, because rising up behind him, looking extremely pissed-off, was the figure of the slave he had previously been in the middle of torturing. The Custodian felt Red's presence and and whirled around, too late to even be surprised at his rapid recovery.

"Red..."

It was the last word the Custodian ever said. A set of fearsomely sharp claws lashed out, and in a single vicious action, disemboweled the head servant.

The den-den mushi clattered to the ground, with the security personnel on the other end still frantically asking what was going on. All they heard was the choking cries of a dying Custodian and a screaming girl in the background.

And if you happen to be wondering why Mar was screaming again, do look up the meaning of the word 'disembowel'. I assure you, it's quite gory and unnerving to witness, even if you've had adventures that would have toughened you up beforehand.

Red however, seemed to be assessing the situation without any trace of panic or regret. He coolly regarded the expiring Custodian's soon-to-be corpse, carefully kicked the fallen key and collar controller towards Mar, and turned to face the doorway where incoming shouts and running footsteps could be heard.

Understanding what he wanted her to do, Mar grabbed the two items and scuttled for cover just as security burst through the door. She barely managed to take refuge behind one of the display cases in the corner before the fighting broke out.

The room filled with all manner of violent noise— gunshots, smashing glass, panicked yelling from the security personnel, and Red's muffled snarls as security attempted to subdue him. After that, Mar didn't have to worry about her acting, because there's nothing quite like enforced method acting for being convincing. Like any other slave would be when caught in crossfire, she huddled and trembled in fear and desperately hoped that it would all be over soon. She did, however, still have enough presence of mind to stash her controller and Red's key under the raised legs of the display case when no one was watching.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the noise died down. From the sound of things, security had been successful in their task.

"Looks like Red got the Custodian good," said the leader of the group as he kneeled down to examine the dead body. Behind him, his team members were busy dog-piling on Red, who had been quelled at last thanks to the use of a sea-stone net.

Even as Mar risked a peek, she caught a glimpse of a distinctly human figure entangled in the net: tawny hair and definitely not-green skin. She also saw his face in the full for the first time, because in the transformation, the muzzle, which was sized for a much larger creature, had fallen off.

Much to Mar's surprise, his face was one that she recognised.

"Well, this is a mess. What in the name of Whitebeard's burnt-off half-moon moustache happened here?" The team leader didn't seem particularly aggrieved over the death of the head-servant. Evidently, the Custodian hadn't exactly been popular amongst the staff.

"Wasn't one of the slave girls in here when it happened, chief? Oh there she is, hiding... Hey, girl! You can come out now. It's safe. Come here! Come!"

Summoned by the security guard, who was clapping his hands encouragingly as though she was some easily spooked animal, Mar gingerly obeyed. And while she did so, her mind was racing to come up with a convincing story.

"Good girl. Now what happened here? You can tell us, it's okay."

"Red displeased the Custodian," Mar said, doing her best impression of 'terrifed slave girl'. She then pointed to the abandoned shock-stick on the floor. "Custodian used the stick on Red a few times to punish him, sometimes on the head—"

"—he hit Red on the back of the neck with that thing?" the leader interrupted knowingly.

Mar nodded. "Then Red suddenly started acting all strange and went berserk—"

At the sound of the word 'berserk', every security guard in the room suddenly froze and started paying full attention, as if it was some vitally important keyword.

"—that damn fool of a Custodian!" swore the leader, who was apparently one of those irritating types who never let other people finish their sentences. "Vegapunk's lab guys already warned us about messing with contoller implant! Idiot must have shorted the controller with the taser. We were damn lucky Red didn't have time to go full berserker on us."

A collective shudder went through the security team.

"What do we do with him now? St. Magnus is the only one who can fully control him and he's away visiting."

"Toss Red back into the kennels and wait till Master comes back. He's too dangerous and unstable to do anything else. Oh, and put the slave girl back with the rest while you're at it, will you?" the leader added, pointing at Mar. "With the Custodian dead, it's probably the best thing to do for time being. Don't want any slaves running around unsupervised."

* * *

I suppose it was a sordid reflection of the twisted-ness of St. Magnus in that he called his slave quarters 'The Kennels'. It should also provide you with some insight on how he regarded his purchased people.

Mar had been in there for the whole of an hour, and already she was wondering how she would be able to last until her mother returned. She had been turned loose in the general slave pen, while Red, still paralysed in the sea-stone net, had been dragged along the passage and dumped into the individual cells in the end. The walls of the dank little cells were completely opaque so no one from the outside could communicate with whoever was inside. They also seemed to be made of sea-stone; she could feel the unpleasant waves of energy they emitted that matched the bracelets she wore. She couldn't help but be worried about Red, as security had been quite rough in their handling of him.

While Mar had been distracted, the other slaves, sensing she was new and unwary, quickly took advantage of her inattention and stole her share of rations when mealtime came around. When Mar attempted to get them back, the thieves immediately started screaming and making a scene, which earned a reprimand from the warden in charge of the Kennels.

"Keep it down!" The Warden, who was busy reading some seedy-looking magazines, didn't seem too anxious about the welfare of his charges. "The next slave who starts a ruckus will be thrown into the same cell as Red for the night. I'm warning you... he's just killed someone, and he'll probably eat you up for breakfast!"

The thieving other slaves immediately quieted at this, and instead settled for staring defiantly at Mar, their cheeks stuffed full of the stolen food.

Mar on the other hand, took all of one second to weigh her options and make up her mind. She promptly turned around and smacked the nearest thieving slave right in the gob.

* * *

"...and let this be a lesson to you!"

True to his word, after the ensuing fight in the slave pens had been broken up, the Warden had dragged Mar (the instigator of the fight) out of the main pen and tossed her into the sea-stone cell Red was in. Fortunately, our protagonist was getting better at the whole acting thing, and the Warden completely failed to notice that this was in fact, exactly what Mar wanted. He smugly slammed the door shut with the mistaken impression that Mar was terrified to death at the idea of being in the same space as the bloodthirsty Red.

Once Mar was sure no one was listening and there were no surveillance den-den mushi about, she dropped her play-acting and looked around the cell. There wasn't much of it to look at. The cell was small, cold, and was depressingly bare except for the unmoving figure in the corner.

Red was lying on his side, eyes closed and breathing shallowly. He had reverted back to his inhuman form, and was carefully avoiding touching any walls. Security had removed the sea-stone net in favour of some common leg shackles, but they hadn't replaced his muzzle and his face was bare. Despite this, his dinner lay untouched in a tray near the door.

Mar approached hesitantly.

"Red?"

One of his eyes cracked open, followed by the other as he recognised her.

"Why are you here?"

His voice was suprisingly clear and cultured. Mar had been expecting a serpent-like hiss, and the vocal dissonance only served to remind her of the truth behind his monstrous form.

"To check if you were alive... I mean, all right."

Red raised his head a little so he could look her in the eye.

"I appreciate the sentiment, but that wouldn't have been enough to kill me."

Mar wondered if she had imagined the wistful tone to his voice. Not knowing what to say, she picked up the tray of food and placed it next to the man, who still showed no interest in it.

It was then when she decided to just go ahead with what was on her mind.

"'Red'... stands for 'Red Flag', doesn't it?" Mar blurted out nervously. "You're the 'Red Flag' X. Drake, of the North Blue. Captain of the Drake Pirates."

Red did not answer for a while. Then he nodded very slightly before speaking.

"I didn't think there was anyone here who knew me by that name."

"But you're one of the infamous Eleven Supernovas! And I heard the stories... Nico Robin mentioned you were the one who called the Straw-hats about Luffy! And then Law told me that the Straw-Hats used the sea-stone from your ship to escape cross the Calm Belt and oh—"

Mar cut herself off, suddenly realising she was being tactless. "Sorry, I didn't mean to..."

But Red, or Drake, merely smiled, if such a word could be used to describe the ghost of that expression that had appeared on his now-inhuman face.

"The Straw-Hats used the sea-stone from the wreckage of my ship to cross the Calm-Belt? I didn't know that, thank you. At least some good came out of losing the _Shadow Hind_ back in Loguetown..."

A _look_ crossed his face as he said this. Mar recognised that look, even though the last time she saw it, it hadn't been transposed on the face of a large half-dinosaur man. Still, there was no doubt about it. It was the same pained, haunted look Law had sported when she had asked about fates of the Heart Pirates.

Drake's next question took her by surprise.

"How long ago was that, do you know?"

"The Battle of Loguetown?" Mar wasn't sure if she had understood his question correctly.

"Yes. I know it's been a while. You don't have to be too exact, just an approximate indication—"

"Twenty years." Mar blurted before she could stop herself. "It's been twenty years."

For the first time ever, Drake's stoic facade crumbled and he stared at her with a look of absolute horror and disbelief.

"_Twenty?_ No, it can't be... a year, maybe a few more, but _twenty?_ I've been here for twenty years...?" he trailed off, overcome. "Damn! No, I know there was that gap after they turned me off, but it can't have been that long!"

"Gap?"

"In my memory... I-I can remember what came before it— Loguetown, we got there first. Fought together with the Revolutionary Army, but our forces were decimated."

He seemed to be talking more to himself than to Mar, as if trying to assure himself he hadn't lost all those years.

"Meant to go down with my ship but then those bastards fished me out from the wreckage and took me prisoner. After the battle was lost, those of us who had devil fruits were sent to Vegapunk's.

"First there were the... interrogations and experiments. Then they decided to put these things on all of us," Drake motioned at the controller implant on the back of his neck as he said this. "To make it easier to pick our brains clean. Providing we survived the implant procedure, which not everyone did. Vegapunk did say that us zoans were noted to have the highest rates of survival, however."

It was an unexpected, and downright chilling glimpse of what had happened to Chopper before the rescue.

"You were in the same facility as Chopper."

"The Straw-Hat's zoan doctor. Yes, I was. It was because of him I managed to escape the first time. When the Straw-Hats raided the facility to save him, I took my opportunity to escape. But this implant cannot be removed, and as I found out later, it contains a tracking device. They hunted me down and I was recaptured."

"How'd you end up here?"

"I'd attracted the attention of the Tenryuubito sometime during my escape, and one of them— St. Magnus, apparently took a fancy to the idea of owning a dinosaur and paid a massive sum to secure me as part of his living collection. I've been here ever since."

There was a pause.

"It really has been twenty years, hasn't it?" He said the last bit with considerably more calm and acceptance than he had previously.

"Yes," Mar replied. "I'm sorry."

Drake exhaled slowly, as if coming to terms with the fact that a large chunk of his life was missing. "Damn it all."

"You don't remember most of your time in this place?"

"I remember the beginning," Drake said slowly. "One doesn't transition from being a free captain of men to a slave animal very easily. I gave them hell. Even with the implant controlling my actions I was always finding loopholes in their commands and trying to escape.

"I was never successful for long. When they found they couldn't 'train' me out of it (the word 'train' was spat out with disgust), they tried keeping me locked up, but that too didn't work out. Eventually they resorted to turning my mind off to keep me from ending things on my own terms."

Mar wondered what exactly Drake had meant by 'ending things on his own terms'. She had a nagging suspicion, but the thought was so disturbing she decided she really didn't want to ask.

"But you got your mind back again," she prompted, steering the conversation away from that line of thought.

"Only weeks ago. The Magda— your mother, freed my mind and told me of her intentions to escape. I've been playing dumb ever since, but with that muzzle on and the need for secrecy, I could not ask very many questions."

Mar felt a surge of pride at the mention of her mother's resourcefulness. Then something occured to her.

"She told you she's my mom?"

"No, but your scents are similar."

"Oh." It was a reminder to Mar that Drake, in his hybrid form, still had enhanced animal senses. "And that's why you saved me from the Custodian?"

"Better me than you," Drake replied. "The Custodian was not lying he said a hit from that shock weapon at maximum setting would kill you."

"But it barely kept you down for a few minutes."

"I am an awakened zoan," Drake said without a trace of pride. "It was something that was forced out during my stint in Vegapunk's test chambers."

Mar tried to recall what she knew about awakened zoans. If she remembered the Impel down arc correctly, they healed ridiculously fast or something like that.

In fact, now that she was aware of it, it made a lot of sense. Even in the short period she had been in the cell with Drake, he seemed to be shaking off his injuries with astonishing rapidity. He no longer seemed to be breathing with any discomfort and was able to move without incurring too much pain.

"Aren't awakened zoans supposed to always be in animal form, though?"

The ghost of a smile appeared again. "My full form wouldn't fit in the rooms here. So they set the controller to keep me in hybrid form. I can only shift forms if given orders to."

"That's better than what I can do now." Mar tried to sound cheerful as she held up her wrists, showing him the sea-stone bracelets.

"You too? Looks like we're all in the same boat," Drake said wryly. "The Custodian has been silenced, and we have bought ourselves some time. There's not much we can do now but wait for Magda's return." He graciously nudged his tray of food towards Mar, indicating they were to share it.

Mar nodded gratefully and resigned herself for a long night in the cells. At least she was now in good company.

_Please hurry back, Mom, _she wished silently. _Please come back safe, and soon_.

* * *

"He used that _thing_ on you?" Mar's mother said, horrified.

"Yeah, but it's okay, Mom, I—"

"_That monster electrocuting you and trying to blow you up afterwards is not okay!_" Her mother was extremely upset and looked to be on the verge of tears.

"I was only hit once, at a lower setting. And Red stopped the Custodian from using the controller."

Unfortunately, her words didn't seem to be having their desired effect.

"Mom, please don't cry. I'm _fine_. You had Red watching out for me, didn't you? And I mean ok, the shock hurt, but I've had worse before I got here. I can handle it."

"I know you can, Marie," her mother said, wiping her eyes. "And I'm proud of you for being so brave. But it shouldn't have happened to you. I should have made sure... that's why I... couldn't help it. I'm sorry."

"Mom, it's not your fault. You did everything you could."

Which was true. The moment the Tenryuubito had returned from visiting St. Mavis (the last Tenryuubito on their tour list) her mother had gone straight to the slave cells and gotten Mar out. She had been frighteningly convincing as a Tenryuubito too; the Warden had practically scraped the floor with his nose while apologising to her for misplacing her latest 'acquisition'.

Unfortunately she hadn't been able to do the same for Red. Security had reported the killing of the Custodian to St. Magnus, and thanks to Mar's lie, the master of the house had simply assumed that Red's controller implant had malfunctioned. There had been talk of sending Red back for 'maintenance', but in the meantime, the 'unstable' slave was to be kept locked up.

"Mom, what do we do about Red? He got in trouble for saving me. We can't just leave him there! They'll send him back to those labs and he'll be mind-wiped again!"

"We won't let that happen," her mother said resolutely, her teary demeanour melting away. "We owe him, and I won't forget that. He'll be leaving with us before they can move him."

Mar felt her heart jump up with relief. "You mean...?"

"Yes. There are a few things I'll need to take care of first because Red got caught, but don't worry—"

"Do you mean the key he had?" Mar interrupted excitedly. "I hid it in the Mer-King's room together with my collar's controller. It's under one of the cases, I remember which one too!"

"Oh you clever girl!" her mother exclaimed and hugged her. "Yes, we needed that, and because of you, we will be able leave tonight!"

It sounded almost too good to be true.

"Tonight? _Really_?"

"Yes, tonight," her mother said seriously. "My escape plans were ready long before this. I was just waiting for the moment when I finally found you again."

* * *

The rest of the day flew by in a blur. Mar stayed in St. Magda's quarters, ostensibly to help the Mistress unpack, but really to do the opposite for their impending escape.

Her mother went in and out throughout the day, no doubt preparing for what was coming as well. She returned after dinner, and told Mar to go to sleep.

"Once we flee, rest will be a luxury," her mother said. "You must make the most of it while you can. Don't worry, I'll wake you when it's time."

Lulled by the comforting presence of her mother, Mar did manage to doze off. It hardly seemed like any time before she was awakened by an insistent shaking at her shoulder.

"Marie? Wake up! Something's happened. We need to leave now."

She opened her eyes to see her mother bending over her anxiously. As her sleepy senses reawakened, Mar became aware that 1) It was still dark outside 2) The mansion seemed to be unusually noisy.

"What's going on?"

"A fleet of ships has appeared. They look like they are going to attack Mariejois."

"What?"

Mar ran to the window and looked out.

Now I should have mentioned earlier, being disgustingly wealthy and all that, St. Magnus' house was situated high on the edge of the Red Line. The windows of Magda's quarters commanded a grand view of Mariejois and the ocean below it, and from that vantage point Mar could see very clearly, despite the dim light, the lights from a fleet of ships that seemed ominously familiar.

There was a rumble and a flash of something bright, almost like an electric beam canon. The security guards had started firing at the invaders with their very advanced-looking artillery. But Mar had only eyes for the ships. In the split second the flash from the canon-fire had illuminated a large standard on the foremost ship.

It was yellow, with a smiley face outlined in black.

"You've got to be kidding me," Mar could barely believe her eyes. _The New Heart Pirates? Just how many men did Madelyn have to throw at them?_

"Marie?"

"It's the Pirate Queen, Mom. I mean, not me, but the real one that they keep mistaking me for."

Her mother stared at her in astonishment. "That's impossible! There's supposed to be nothing of her armada left!"

"Nothing's impossible with her," said Mar in disgust. "Squall said she's after you and me and Dad. Looks like she's got reserves and decided come for us this time."

"I don't really understand what's going on, but it doesn't matter," her mother said after a moment of puzzled silence. "Our plan doesn't change, we're still escaping now. The attack will even help us as a diversion. Let's make the most of it."

* * *

There was no disputing that the attack offered an excellent diversion, so Mar and Mrs. Suesse grabbed their bags and crept out of St. Magda's quarters. The security alarms were going off full blast; it seemed that the intruders had already breached the grounds. As a result, the mansion was in an uproar, allowing Mar and her mother to slip past the staff in the chaos.

The first stop they made was the room with the display of the Mer-King. Mar quickly located the display case where she had concealed her collar controller and Red's key, both of which Mrs. Suesse quickly claimed. They were able to deactivate and remove Mar's collar (Mar was extremely glad to be rid of the uncomfortable choker), and without wasting a moment, they were off again.

"Red," was her mother's single-word explanation as they made their way through the myriad passages.

Mar was surprised so see the Warden fast asleep his post when they arrived at the slave cells. Her mother however, didn't even hesitate as she reached for his keys.

"Slipped him a mickey," Mrs. Suesse said matter-of-factly as she unlocked the main cell door. "Can't beat the classics when in comes to getting rid of unwanted men."

Mar promptly decided she was better off not knowing exactly what kind of wild hijinks her mother had been involved in during her youth to necessitate such knowledge.

The slaves were huddled and hysterical at the state of affairs and were too busy sobbing and crying to pay them any mind. Mar and her mother in turn ignored them and headed straight for Red's solitary confinement cell.

Red was awake and alert, and seemed to have recovered completely from his injuries from the day before.

"Magda," he greeted, a questioning expression in his eye as she unlocked the door. Even in the bowels of the slave cells, he had been able to sense something was amiss.

"We're little earlier than planned, Red," her mother said as she unlocked his individual fetters. The slave gladly stretched his cramped legs and straightened to his full height. "The mansion is under attack by unknown persons, and we're leaving. I have the key."

Red nodded and despite Mar's protests, chivalrously relieved them of their bags while her mother tossed the now-unneeded bunch of keys to the surrounding slaves.

"Stay close and follow my lead," Red instructed as they left the cells.

It was a good thing they had Red with them on their journey out, because the mansion was now in a state of heightened alert. Twice they nearly ran into incoming security teams, but both times Red's superior senses gave them advance warning and the three of them were able to conceal themselves and let the patrol pass.

It was during the second of these encounters when something important happened. Red had ushered them into a dark recess to wait out the passage of a large team of guards. Sandwiched between her mother and Red, Mar was trying her best to not make any sound. Fortunately, the security team was not exactly quiet and drowned out any tell-tale sounds they might have made.

"Guns out and ready to fire, rookie," Mar heard the team leader reprimand one of the men as they clattered through the hall. "You saw what was on the surveilance den-den mushi. That damned serial killer. And the rest of the invaders are already inside the building."

"How are they doing it? They're going through our locked doors like they're not even there!"

"Damned if I know! Just be ready for anything!"

The voices faded away as the group moved to the next room. Red listened intently and signalled when he was satisfied that the coast was clear.

But the nagging voice at the back of Mar's mind was insistently telling her that she had just missed something important and she should pay attention before it was too late.

"Marie, we need to go. What's wrong?"

With a jolt Mar realised she had stopped moving and her mother and Red were already a little distance away ahead of her. Yet she could not shake the feeling that they were running in the wrong direction.

Then it hit her. _Just how many Tenryuubito-hostile serial killers did she know? __There was also that comment about the locked doors— there could only be one person capable of that..._

"Mom! Red! We need to turn back!" she burst out to the two astonished adults.

"The invaders... I think they're my crew, and _Dad's with them!_ _We need to go back!_"

* * *

**End of Chapter 28**

* * *

_**A/N: Thanks for the wonderful, wonderful feedback (positive and negative) on the last chapter. I really appreciate it, I've been working hard to get this chapter out as thanks. **_

_**As you know, I don't write for reviews nor do I hold chapters hostage, but I have to say that when you guys review so enthusiastically, it does make me want to work harder too! So keep it up!**_

_** It should be noted, this chapter is the longest one I've done for this series yet, due to pacing purposes. Enjoy, and don't forget to let me know what you thought of it :)**_

* * *

_**Q and A:**_

**Kalasin 7/19/12 . chapter 27**

In a way, I feel somewhat sorry for Madelyn, or St Madga. She simply wanted to fulfil their "dreams" and become another dreamer, another adventurer. But she ruined it all, warped them and changed them.

And that's the crux of this story, isn't it? This is what a "Mary Sue" when written badly, ends up doing.

**_Phalanx: That is indeed one of the main themes of the story neatly summarised. I wanted this to be a more realistic and accurate reflection of what causes a Mary Sue instead of a usual bash-fic, and no, I don't believe that most of them are created to be deliberately malicious in nature. I honestly think most of them mean well but just really don't know any better. As another reader noted, the road to hell is paved with good intentions._**


	29. Not My Daughter

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!**

A Deconstruction, in which many hearts and feels are wrenched and wrung. Violently.

**Chapter 29: Not My Daughter**

* * *

It was a busy night in The Rain Dancer Bar in Hawker Island.

The residents of the pirate port were just beginning to recover from the severe drubbing they had received from the crew of the Pirate Queen. Even if the island had been spared a shelling, their embarrassing defeat had made them the laughingstock of the pirate world, so naturally there had been some resentment. In fact, the residents started celebrating wildly when news of the Pirate Queen's capture reached the island and hadn't stopped since.

The party had been going on for quite a few days now, and sobriety was as a result in short supply. The Rain Dancer Bar had been no exception.

"...and then despite my injuries, I said: 'Who am I? I am Skyblade!'" a very drunk pirate was bragging to anyone who would listen. "And that was when that mermaid realised how outmatched she was and she scuttled!"

If he was aiming to impress, he didn't succeed. The nearest girl in the bar just screeched with derisive laughter. "Excuse me? That's bull—! You just got your ass kicked by a fish! Me? I was the one who took on that Pirate Queen! She only got away from me that time because she got lucky!"

"I wasn't aware your 'not being able to carry your own fan' counted as her 'getting lucky', spaghetti-arms!" countered 'Skyblade'. "Besides, weren't you her 'number one ass-kisser'?"

"Why you—" the girl burst into a torrent of very crass language at this.

Normally this is the point where a barfight breaks out, but the timely entrance of a newcomer to the bar provided a distraction and the conflict was promptly forgotten. Everyone _might_ be celebrating the fall of the Pirate Queen, that was true, but Hawker Island was still Hawker Island, and a newcomer meant a potential crew to join or a crew member to recruit.

This newcomer however, did not look very much like a typical pirate. He was clad head-to-toe in black, starting with a black cap (well pulled down), black shades, and a long sleeved black trench-coat. Even the sword slung behind his back appeared to be black.

While some might have commented on his apparent fondness for the colour, no one dared, as he radiated an aura of confidence and power that had the noisy bar hushed for a moment. This man in black was obviously Someone.

"I'm not recruiting," the Man In Black said immediately on noticing the attention.

Interest in the newcomer immediately dropped and the bar regulars went back to their tales of improbable victories and accomplishments.

The foul-mouthed girl from earlier however, was not as easily dissuaded. She had caught a glimpse of the the man's face, and apparently liked what she saw enough to accost him on his way to the bar.

"Of course someone like you wouldn't just take anyone," she said, making a clumsy attempt to be seductive. "But you don't know me—"

"—I'm neither seeking to recruit parasites, nor am I interested in whores," the Man In Black replied rudely. "Get out of my way."

The girl's face turned a plummy shade of purple, but before she could retort with her trademark verbal diarrhea, the voice of a man seated at the bar cut her off.

"Knock it off, dumbass. Don't you know Cipher Pol when you see one?"

The shade of purple faded into green remarkable quickly. Almost as quickly the mass of pirates fled the building, in fact.

"Well, that took care of the lot of them," said the man at the bar, turning around to reveal a pair of double-jointed arms. "About time you guys sent someone here. What's this about rejecting my claim for that bounty, eh?"

"I wasn't involved in that particular discussion, Mr. Shipwright," said the Man In Black. "I'm here about a certain infamous pirate ship."

"Oh, that one. So at least I'm getting salvage rights to that then? Shame about that ship. It'd be an even bigger shame to let all that Adam wood go to waste."

"Perhaps we should discuss this somewhere more discreet."

"Oh yeah. Let's go to my place then."

The Man In Black followed the shipwright out of the bar without further comment.

The shipyards were deserted when the two men arrived at the long-arm's workshop. As it was night, all work in the area had ceased for the day.

"My office is right this way," the shipwright said as he unlocked the door, stepped inside, and turned on the lights. Then he stopped in his tracks and gaped.

Seated at his very own desk, on his very own chair, was an ominous-looking figure in a hazard suit.

"Y-you! What are you doing here?"

"You didn't change your combination code."

It wasn't the seated figure who said this, but someone who had been waiting behind the door. The shipwright turned and found himself face to face with a wiry, bespectacled, middle-aged man he knew and hated.

"You again!"

Mr. 'You-Again' however, didn't seemed fazed by this exclamation, and continued speaking calmly. "Knowing that your safe had already been compromised, I'd expected it to be the first thing you'd do after we left. But you didn't.

"Strange, isn't it? Someone paranoid like you taking the risk that a bunch of pirates wouldn't come back and empty out the contents of your safe? It's almost as though you had some reason to be sure we wouldn't come back..."

"What are you trying to accuse me of, huh?" the shipwright bristled. Then there was a pause as something else that was said sunk in. "Wait, you mean you've been messing around with my safe again?!"

"I didn't need to mess around, really. I just opened it. You've certainly gotten a lot richer since the last time I had a look inside."

"You damn busybody! What's it to you? You have no right coming back here and harassing me, our business was done!"

Something crashed in through the ceiling at that moment, narrowly missing the long-arm. He jumped back and swore. Then he began to take notice of what exactly it was that had fallen. It looked like a section of a ship's mast.

"I believe this is yours," a voice drawled from above. There was a flash of bright orange as a mermaid jumped down from the hole she had made in the roof. "Well, to be precise, the tracer beacon embedded within, is."

The shipwright backed away in fear as he recognised a much-feared serial-killer.

"I should mention I also found the pardon letter in your safe," Mr. 'You-Again' continued speaking, and he was shaking in anger. "The one awarded for 'aiding the capture of the criminal known as the 'Pirate Queen'. And, there was a copy of a bounty claim for 666 million..."

"Such a coincidental number," added the mermaid, a dangerous glint in her eye. She took a threatening step forward.

Realising the game was up, the shipwright attempted to flee the office. The door, however, happened to be obstructed by the Man in Black, who had been quietly observing the consecutive confrontations with an air of amusement.

"Your guys told me they were dead!" the shipwright couldn't help yelling at the Man in Black. "You had all the info you needed! How could you screw up and still let them get away?"

"With long-range gunships, tracker mines and a tracing beacon... Indeed, by all rights they should have been dead. _Illogical_ that they somehow slipped through the Marine forces undetected, isn't it?" The Man in Black reached for his sword as he said this, showing no trace of fear.

"Yeah, that's right! I cooperated and I deserve protection! You're Cipher Pol and they're both wanted, aren't they? Damn it, that's the Sand-Dragon and that one—" he pointed to the hazard-suited figure, "—is the Deranged Disinfector. Get them! "

"Actually, that's just my empty suit. I was airing it out while I went out to fetch you, Mr. Shipwright," the Man In Black replied, drawing his weapon.

It took the shipwright a moment to realise his meaning. Then he blanched. "Y-you... you're..."

The Man in Black levelled _Shusui's _long black blade at the shipwright.

**"The Disinfector returned to take care of unfinished business," **he said, switching personas with startling ease. **"Long-arm shipwright need not worry, **_**this**_** particular transaction won't take long."**

* * *

"Well he's been keeping busy," Mr. Suesse said to the Disinfector later, as they surveyed the ships docked in the yard. "Looks like he managed to salvage and rebuild quite a few of those pirate ships you sunk the last time we were here."

**"Conditions of ships unlikely to be very seaworthy long-term."**

"Maybe, but I have a idea on how we can make use of them. How long they last won't be an issue. Speaking of long: is it time yet?"

The Disinfector checked his watch. **"Affirmative. Time to relieve Walker Fishman."**

The aforementioned fishman was in one of the warehouses, keeping watch on a very trussed-up prisoner. This prisoner (who was not the shipwright) was currently clad in a singlet and boxers, his rather stylish all-black ensemble having been appropriated by Law/Disinfector earlier on.

"Ready to talk now?" asked Law, after the two men had greeted Walker and removed the prisoner's gag.

"Oh goody! I thought you'd never ask!" the prisoner giggled happily.

"Well, that's quite a change in personality," commented Mr. Suesse. I should mention, he left it ambigious on whether he was referring to the prisoner, or The Disinfector.

"That long-acting truth serum Cipher Pol uses is quite potent. It would have been wasted on that shipwright. Didn't take much to make him spill everything."

Mr. Suesse agreed with the Disinfector by providing a very unflattering description of the backstabbing long-arm who had sold them out to the Marines.

"Well, there is a certain element of irony in using the serum against its owner. Don't you think so, Mr. Cipher Pol?"

"Oh yes indeedy!" the Cipher Pol agent agreed enthusiastically. As Law had noted, the truth serum was indeed very effective. "It's very ironic all right!"

Law squatted down so he could address his captive face-to-face. "Now, tell me about the Pirate Queen. Where did they take her? Impel Down?"

"Impel Down? Nah... Marine High Command got strong-armed into selling her off to a Tenryuubito. Boy, was the Old Fleet Admiral Stamper hopping mad about that!"

Mr. Suesse however, did not care to hear about the feelings of Admiral Stamper. "Another one? Which one of those ten-rude-bit-o bastards has my daughter this time?"

"The name of the Tenryuubito?" pressed Law.

"St. Magnus!" the agent readily replied.

Of course, we've already known for a few chapters now that St. Magnus bought Mar and it was because of Mrs. Suesse's influence, but Mar's crew did not know this, so let's let them have their collective moment of dumbfounded surprise at this bit of information.

"Hey Disinfector, do you believe in coincidence?" Mr. Suesse said later after the interrogation of the Cipher Pol agent had concluded.

"No," replied Law flatly. He was frowning.

"Same Magnus-hunam?" wondered Walker. "Same hunam as one holding Lock-hunam mate?"

"Fate is a strange mistress," was Gurnade's comment after she joined them and was updated on the situation. She had been busy disposing of the long-arm shipwright. For the sake of the rating of this story I shall not elaborate any further on the specifics.

"I had felt honour-bound to help you rescue your captain. After all, had she not expended her power during the ambush, we would have all perished."

"Actually, I still don't understand how this whole fruit-demon—"

"—devil-fruit," corrected Law.

"Devil-fruit," repeated Mr. Suesse slowly, "—deal works and how my daughter apparently has some of kind bizarre magic power that made all of us ridiculously lucky back then, but does it have anything to do with why this St. Magnus bought her?"

"Mayhap. St. Magnus is the kind of 'man' who collects people. The more famous and unique they are, the more they appeal to him. But his hubris benefits us here. We can focus our efforts on him instead of spreading ourselves thin."

"You're right," Mr. Suesse said. "We know where Blake is. And by some stroke of luck Mar's there too. We stick to our original plan— we raid St. Magnus, and I'm getting my family back."

* * *

And now that you all know how the raid on Mariejois came about, let's jump back to the halls of St. Magnus' mansion, where Mar, Mrs. Suesse and Red (formerly known as X. Drake) were currently deciding whether they should be going back the way they came in case the invaders did turn out to be Mar's rescue party.

The nice thing about being the Narrator is that you get to have omniscience, and know exactly what's going on in this situation. But while_ I _know (and get to tell you all so _you_ know) that it is indeed Mar's crew, Mar didn't, and only had a few indications to go by.

And worst of all, she couldn't be absolutely sure and yet had to convince two adults to abandon their well-planned escape strategy on a shaky hunch.

"Marie, how can you be sure?" Her mother was using that exasperating patient-mother-addressing-unreasonable-child tone that Mar hated so much. "I want to believe your father is alive too, but you're saying he's leading a bunch of people and charging in to save us. You know your father, and that's not something he'd be capable of—"

"What are you talking about, Mom?" Mar, I regret to say, snapped at her mother. "That's exactly what Dad was planning to do before I got caught! We were going to raid this place and rescue you! Didn't you hear what those guards were saying about the locks? That was Dad! He's been this kickass lock-picker and gun-slinger and I can't believe you're not even giving him any credit..."

Under normal circumstances, speaking like that to your mother would have earned you a severe reprimand. But at the mention of Mr. Suesse's exploits, a flush suddenly came over Mrs. Suesse's face.

"You mean he was going to come for me? H-he was going to take on Mariejois to save me? Oh _Garreth_..."

Mrs. Suesse's face had taken on a distinctly gooey expression that had Mar half-wishing she hadn't opened her mouth. Let me remind you once again that Mar is a teenager, and therefore the very notion of your parents getting all romantic for each other is absolute anathema.

The timing wasn't particularly appropriate either, as two guards picked then to wander in and spoil the moment (or save the day, depending on whether you were Mrs. Suesse or Mar). Fortunately, Red was on them before they could figure out what was going on and no alarm was raised.

"We can't just stand here. We need to decide now: forwards or back?" he warned them after he had finished bashing the two guards' heads together and knocking them unconscious.

"Back," said Mrs. Suesse, apparently convinced of Mar's hunch now. "I can't take the chance of my husband being here and putting himself in further danger searching the mansion for us after we've left." Mar cringed at the reappearance of The Flush as her mother said this.

Red did not argue. "Very well. We go back. But a warning: if we run into St. Magnus, his voice will be able to trigger the vocal override on my controller. I will be forced to obey him."

"You're right," Mar's mother said at once. "You should go on without us, Red. It's too big a risk."

But whatever X. Drake had been and however far he had fallen in life, he still wasn't the type of person to let two women run headlong into danger while he fled to save his own skin.

"No, I'll come," he said firmly, and one look at his face convinced Mar it would be futile to argue. "If you run into patrols, or if those invaders turn out to be not your people, better I be there."

And so the three fugitives turned their back on easy freedom, and made their way back into the heart of danger.

* * *

The journey back felt surreal to Mar. True, all she did was run behind Red and her mother, but the uncertainty and the self-doubt was taxing. Her senses were straining to find clues to confirm her hunch, but Red dispatched the security patrols they came across too fast for her to catch any conversation.

"The fighting is heavy ahead," Red said at one point, listening intently after a vicious and one-sided skirmish with another unfortunate security detail. "I can hear them."

"If they are fighting someone, it must be my crew," was all Mar could trust herself to say.

"Then we go towards them. Stay behind cover when you can. Being caught in the crossfire is a real danger."

They were back in the area with the rooms filled with the glass display cases. Mar could not imagine a more inappropriate place to have a fight. Somewhere from one of the nearby rooms, she could hear the rumble of a gun and the tinkling sound of shattering glass. A lot of St. Magnus' collection wasn't going to be very collectible after this.

Red was coughing a little—the strong smell of gunpowder was wafting in from the next room and was interfering with his enhanced sense of smell. He evidently didn't enjoy it. "Looks like security set up a cannonade. They've got the invaders pinned down. How certain are you that they're your crew?" he turned and asked Mar.

Mar bit her lip and tried to sound confident. "I'm their captain, I should know..."

Red grinned toothily, as though he found her earnestness amusing. "All right then, _Captain_." Then he put down the bags he had been carrying, mock-saluted, and disappeared through the door. Within seconds the sounds from the next room changed. The gun-fire slowed, and Mar could hear the surprised shouts from the security personnel. And then an eerie silence as the guns stopped firing.

After a longer period of continuing silence, Mar shot her mother a questioning look.

"Red must be done with them," he mother replied, but her tone was tense. "Stay behind me, we're going to have a look."

The next room was a war-zone. Near the door, expensive furniture had been piled up to provide some sort of barricade. Some sort of turret-gun had been set up behind the barrier, and while the gunners now lay mauled on the floor, the barrels of the guns were still smoking.

Over the scattered bodies stood Red, blood-covered and with his back to them. But something seemed wrong with his stance. It was too rigid, too uneasy, almost as if he was being held immobile by some paralysing grip.

"Red?"

Then Mar heard her mother give a gasp, just as a familiar voice cut through the silence.

"Magda! There you are! Where have you been, My Daughter? Didn't you know the mansion is under attack? This is no time to be gathering your favourite possessions!"

Her mother too, had frozen in fear. The worst scenario possible had occurred.

"St. Magnus..." groaned one of the wounded personnel, who had just come to.

"Stupid trash," the Tenryuubito said in disgust, kicking the man in question. "Going down so easily! You were all supposed to protect me! I nearly got killed by one of my own pets!"

Her mother was staring at Red, who was still immobilised as though by some unseen force. Had St. Magnus given him some sort of command to stop? It seemed like it.

"Don't be afraid, Magda," said St. Magnus, mistaking Mrs. Suesse's apprehension for a fear of the 'unstable' slave. "Those invaders must have freed Red and let him run wild, but not to worry, Daddy has everything under control. Red will obey me, and he will protect us while we make our way to the panic room. Red, come here!"

Red slowly turned around, and when Mar saw his face, she immediately wished he hadn't. Now she understood why they called the implant a 'puppet controller'— his every motion was jerky and forced, like a puppet controlled by invisible strings. And worst of all, the implant by default did not seem to override free thought, and Mar could see Red was very aware of what was going on. His expression reflected his desperation and frustration at once again being made a prisoner in his own body, and his eyes reminded her of an animal that had thought it had escaped a cage only to be trapped again.

And Mar couldn't help thinking that it was her fault for bringing them back.

But we must not be forgetting that a fight had been going on in this very room, and Red's savaging of the gunners had done its work. The invaders, who had been pinned down behind the doorway, soon realised that the firing had stopped, and were emerging from their cover to push forward. Mar could see movement from further down the passage, and a large hulking figure that looked almost like—

"WALKER!" Mar screamed in recognition. "Walker! We're here!"

The giant fishman, who seemed to be using a torn-off metal door as a shield, turned at the sound of her voice. Then his beady little eyes widened as he spotted her. With a roar, he charged towards the barricade.

"Hideous fish!" St. Magnus said in revulsion, and pulled out a pistol. But the small-calibre bullets he fired were simply deflected by the door, and having witnessed the fishman's strength, Mar knew it would take more than the piddly little barricade to stop the infamous Demon Walker.

Unfortunately, she was right.

"Red! Stop that beast! Transform if you have to!" St. Magnus commanded.

Unable to disobey, the slave lurched forward to meet the fishman, his body growing rapidly in size until he was a giant towering high above them and nearly touching the ceiling.

I am aware I have previously used the word 'giant' to describe the fishman Walker as well. In hindsight, maybe I should have used the word 'sorta-big' instead, because if we are talking about a largeness scale from one to ten here, Walker would have weighed in as a six, while Red would be a ten.

Mar had 'seen' X. Drake's full form before of course, but you know what they say about how seeing something illustrated and seeing the real thing is not quite the same. Drake's dinosaur form in Sabaody had looked cool. In person, it was also _terrifying_.

Drake's unnatural gait seemed to have disappeared on the changing of forms, and he easily intercepted Walker before the fishman reached them.

The sorta-big fishman did not let the sudden appearance of a giant dinosaur faze him much; he met the challenge by avoiding the snapping jaws and spiking Drake in the neck with his venomous spines. But while every other creature that had been spiked so far had recoiled and crumpled in agonising pain, Drake/Red-the-Dinosaur did not even seem to have felt the strike and followed up with another credible attempt to bite Walker in half.

For Mar the whole situation couldn't have gotten worse. Both her allies were being forced to fight each other, and as much as she wanted Walker to overpower Drake so her crew could rescue them, it didn't look very likely. What did look likely however, was the prospect of the room collapsing down on them— so much collateral damage was being done. Mar wondered if any of the others: Gurnarde, The Disinfector or her father, were nearby, but despite her expectant looking out for them, she saw nothing in the clouds of dust and falling debris.

Mar quickly forgot about looking out for them when she heard her mother cry out a protest, and then St. Magnus' voice rising above the sounds of battle:

"Don't worry about the slave, Magda. I'll buy you a new one. Now come with me!"

St. Magnus was forcibly leading her mother away into the next room. I might add that Mar did consider going after them, but this time she did think over her actions first and realised it wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do. St. Magnus had a gun and she was still helpless. If only she could use her powers, but the devil-fruit power-nulllifying sea-stone bands saw to that—

Then the light bulb went off over her head.

Sea-stone. Which nullified devil-fruit powers.

_Drake's included._

If she could just get close enough to touch Drake with the sea stone he'd revert to his human form, which Walker could likely defeat. And with Walker's help surely she could save her mother?

But right now, Walker looked like the one needing help. For all his skill in Fishman Karate and innate fishman advantages, he'd score hit after hit on Drake, and the giant rex would just shrug it off and keep attacking. One particular vicious lash of Drake's tail sent Walker flying into a display case, shattering it. The dinosaur followed up by charging towards him, jaws snapping.

What Mar really wanted to do at that moment was to turn around and run in fear. But she had to save her mother and Walker, so she summoned her courage and ran forward into the fray, baring her wrists so that the sea-stone was exposed.

"Red! Drake! No! Stop! Fight it!" she shouted in the futile hope it would do some good.

For a moment Drake slowed a little, but there didn't seem to be much control left in him and he continued his attack almost immediately. Fortunately, Walker managed to recover in time and dived out of the way. There was a crash as what was left of the case promptly got flattened by several tons of raging dino. Yet the creature did not even pause, and neatly turned back around and charged back right in Mar's direction.

Suddenly, trying to touch him with her sea-stone bands seemed like a remarkably deluded idea. Belatedly, Mar realised she was going to get trampled or savaged before she even got anywhere close.

Walker was roaring for her to get out of the way, but before she could respond, someone tackled her from the side. It was with such force that she was knocked off her feet and they both tumbled over and over, out of the way, right through the open doorway, and into the next room.

It also knocked the wind out of her lungs. Mar lay stunned for a while, disoriented, then she realised who it was who had saved her life.

"Gurnarde?"

"Ah good, you're still alive." The split-finned mermaid seemed genuinely pleased at this as she got to her feet. "I commend your courage, Captain, but getting in range of that creature was not advisable."

"Where's my dad and the Disinfector?"

"Fear not, they are on their—"

There was a long silence. Mar wondered why her rescuer had stopped speaking. Then she looked up and saw that Gurnarde was staring fixedly at something behind her. The mermaid's face had twisted into a bizarre expression that was both shock and grief, and there were tears in her eyes.

"_Fukaboshi-sama."_

Mar followed her gaze and realised just where they were: they were back in the Mer-King's room, and it was the sight of the giant blue merman which had such a profound effect on her companion.

"Fukaboshi-sama... what have they done to you? What have they... _how dare they?!_" Gurnarde seemed to have completely forgotten the present; that her brother was fighting for his life in the next room, or that Mar was there. She was walking towards the glass case, like a sleepwalker in a dream.

"Watch out!"

The warning snapped Gurnarde out of her trance, just in time to dodge the bullets that had been meant for her. Instead they hit the glass case of the Mer-King's display, shattering the panel.

"Magda, be silent! You've given us away!"

Wordlessly Gurnarde turned to face the shooter— St. Magnus, who up to that point, had been quietly hiding in the corner. A prickly chill ran down Mar's spine at the sight of the mermaid's face. There was no fear, but just pure, unadulterated hatred.

From the folds of her cloak the mermaid drew out a dial, clicked the top, and threw it into the Mer-King's case. "A pyre for you, my king," she said tranquilly. "Forgive me for taking so long."

Behind her, the Mer-King's display case burst into roaring flame.

"Wretched fish!" St. Magnus looked livid as he took aim with his gun. "My prized merman display... how dare you!"

Gurnarde just stared at him unflinchingly. "I will turn your bones into sand, Magnus._ And feed it to your children!"_

She was interrupted as a section of wall gave way and in flew Walker, followed by Drake, still in his full form. The fishman crash-landed hard, groaned, and did not get up again.

"Walker!"

"Red! Good! Quickly, protect me! Do whatever it takes!"

Everything was happening too fast. Gurnarde turned, saw Walker downed, and a murderous expression crossed her face. But her hatred for St. Magnus appeared to outweigh her concern for her brother, because she still turned back towards St. Magnus and raised her hand, from which was dripping dark blood.

"Gurnarde, wait!" Mar shouted in alarm, realising the danger her mother was in. But St. Magnus started shooting, and Gurnarde retaliated with her blood-bullets.

Instinctively, Mar screamed, ducked and hit the floor as multiple projectiles whistled past overhead. Shattering glass, the sound of bullets striking flesh, and then silence.

Was her mother dead? With dread Mar opened her eyes again, expecting the worst. But what she saw shocked her.

"Red?" she heard her mother say.

Drake had transformed into his hybrid form, and had jumped between both combatants, shielding both St. Magnus and her mother from Gurnarde, and Gurnarde from St. Magnus. And in the process he had taken every bullet meant for both parties. There was a strange, triumphant look in his face as he sank to his knees, blood dripping from multiple wounds.

"I have to obey whatever he commands me to," he said to Gurnarde as they locked eyes. "If you want to get to him you have to get through me first. Think you can do it?"

Those words could have come across as a threat, but there was something not quite right in the tone they were said in. There was no menace in his voice, just an apologetic calmness.

In fact, now that Mar thought about it, his choice of jumping in and taking the bullet to save St. Magnus made no sense. No, not if he could have chosen to attack Gurnarde in that same time and interrupt her attack instead. It was then when Mar remembered what Drake had said about him being good at finding loopholes in the Master's instructions, and she understood. Even with his body no longer in control, Drake had still found a way to handicap himself and throw the fight in their favour.

Even as she thought this, Gurnarde and Drake were already engaging in an all-out battle. Mar considered running to revive Walker, but as she turned around, she froze in fear.

"So it was you they came for," the Tenryuubito said, twitching with anger, his gun aimed at her. "All this damage to my property because of you. Well, if they want you so badly, I'll give them a nice corpse to bring home!"

Without further ado, he pulled the trigger.

His shot went wide and hit nothing, because Mar's mother, realising what St. Magnus was about to do, had jumped in and knocked his hand away. The two adults grappled for control of the weapon, but when the struggle ended and they drew apart, it was Mrs. Suesse who held the gun in her hand.

"Magda, what are you doing?" St. Magnus was livid. "Don't be stupid! I'll buy you a new slave, but kill this one!"

Mrs. Suesse replied in three weighted words:

"_Not my daughter_."

It took St. Magnus several moments to understand what she had meant, and his expression hardened.

"That trash is your... you..._ you're not my daughter_."

"Not the one you know," her mother countered, keeping the gun trained on the Tenryuubito.

But St. Magnus didn't appear fearful. "Then you will regret this. Red! Forget the fish! _Kill Magda!_"

And under the control of his implant, Drake obeyed. Avoiding a strike from Gurnarde, he turned his back on his opponent, darted across the room, and pounced on Mrs. Suesse before she could get a shot off. The gun flew out of her hands, and went clattering across the floor.

_"Mom!"_

Even though she didn't know how to use a gun or what she would do with it once she picked it up, Mar ran for the weapon. But before she could get close enough, someone yanked her by her hair, and another blow from behind knocked her down. Dazed, she got up and kept crawling, only to see St. Magnus ahead of her and reaching for the weapon.

Just as Mar thought he would succeed in getting it, a large trident pierced his hand and pinned it to the floor. St. Magnus screamed in pain as a spiky-finned foot kicked the gun away.

"Order him to stop!" Gurnarde demanded, grinding the trident (which Mar vaguely recalled had been part of the Mer-King's display) deeper to inflict more pain. "He obeys your voice, does he not? _Make him stop_!"

"Red..." St. Magnus gasped defiantly. "_Kill the Pirate Queen—_"

Gurnarde struck the Tenryuubito to make him stop, but it was too late, Drake tossed Mrs. Suesse aside and went straight for Mar. She had a split second glimpse of his apologetic face before he was on her, and his strength was terrifying.

In any other situation, Mar would probably have been killed pretty quick. But Drake was fighting the controller and holding back, and we know this because instead of slashing at Mar with his claws (which would be the easiest way of killing her), he opted to do what he had done with Mrs. Suesse earlier: pin her down and slowly choke her to death instead. He also left her arms free, allowing Mar to do the only thing she could in her situation: touch her sea-stone bracelets against him.

Green skin gave way to peach, the monstrous face melted away into human features, and the hold on her neck lessened in force. Mar was still being strangled slowly, but at least Drake no longer had the strength to instantly crush her throat.

"Sea-stone. Clever girl," she heard Drake say weakly as the sea-stone drained his strength. "Keep it in contact, it's your only chance."

Behind him, St. Magnus was screaming in pain as Gurnarde dealt with him using her own special brand of agony.

"I said: Command him to stop!"

But even with his life on the line, St. Magnus did not yield.

"I won't let you scum have what you want! Even if you strip the flesh from his bones, Red will not stop killing her unless I give the order. And I am a Tenryuubito— I would rather die than take orders from a damned fish!"

Mar was fighting for breath, but to no avail. Even injured, weakened and in human-form, Drake was still far stronger than she was, and she couldn't last much longer. Gurnarde seemed to realise this too, because she stopped trying to coerce St. Magnus. Instead, she dipped her hand in his blood, drew her arm back, and took careful aim at the now-human and vulnerable Drake.

But it was not Gurnarde who struck first. There was a gunshot, and Mar felt her attacker's grip loosen as his body shuddered. Something warm and liquid was dripping on to her face, and she could smell fresh blood.

A short distance away stood a recovered Mrs. Suesse, the smoking gun still in her shaking hands.

"That won't be enough, Magda," Drake said calmly, coughing up blood. "You need to aim for the head."

"Red..." Her mother's voice was choked with grief and horror.

"It's all right. I couldn't have gone much further with you anyway... not with the tracking device on my implant." The ghost of a smile was on his face again. "I'd only meant to go with you as far as the ocean. But this... this is close enough."

Mar could feel his body push against the energy-sapping bands of sea-stone, almost if welcoming the feel of it on his flesh.

"I can't fight it much longer. She doesn't have much time. _Please_."

There was the sound of footsteps coming closer. Mrs. Suesse was crying, but she still brought the muzzle of the gun to the back of Drake's head.

A look of beatific peace came across the long-suffering slave's face.

"Thank you."

He closed his eyes.

Starved of air, Mar could feel her consciousness slipping away.

But she still heard the gun go off before the darkness claimed everything.

* * *

**End of Chapter 29**

* * *

_**A/N: To the readers who liked Drake/Red, I apologise for this chapter. And yes, Happy Guest, the blue-haired merman is indeed who you thought it was.**_

_**Also, I should mention the name 'The Rain Dancer Bar' was adapted from the handles of one of my frequent reviewers, The Lovely Rain Dancer. I was at a loss for bar names and decided to pick one from the list. LRD, Hope you don't mind ;)**_

* * *

_**Q and A**_

_**Baubles 8/8/12 . chapter 28**_

...there was one thing about Mar's character that bothered me a bit.

There were several characters who died in a rather gory fashion and Mar lacked a proper reaction. I know you did have her screaming in this chapter but it seems like she had forgotten all about it later, and in a early chapter when Slashfang (is that right?) died, Mar had quite unconcernedly offered Sunny to dump them. I feel like, that a ordinary girl, who is not a insane killer, would be at least more bothered than Mar had been. Was it because you didn't want Mar to be one of those ridiculous goody-goody main character that stops everyone from killing?

_**Phalanx:**_

_I totally blame Mr. Suesse for this ;) She grew up with him reading stories like 'The Count of Monte Cristo' , 'Journey to the West', and 'Conan the Barbarian' to her (well he tried and failed with 'Conan', anyway). All three of these are stories which tended to not hold back on the subject of death and people killing other people, so I guess she' s a bit desensitised to people dying and a little less bothered about the idea than one would think. _

_All jokes aside though, if you pay attention to the story generally Mar tends to react more adversely to (attempted) killings when _

_It's gory and violent _

_Example: Screaming when a) The Disinfector slashed open the swordswoman in Sabaody, b) when Captain Marrow impaled Walker and c) when Drake disemboweled the Custodian._

_It involves people she has empathizes with or has emotional investment in. _

_Example: Luffy, Chopper, the Straw-Hats, her crew etc._

_In cases like Slashfang (who dropped dead suddenly without any external injury and was going to take the Sunny from her anyway), Hana, Captain Marrow, Admiral Imba (who were all going to kill her), plus Squall and the pirates in Hawker Island, she's a little less affected, since she perceived them as enemies._

_So yeah, Mar's not exactly saintly or idealistic about the concept of death. It's not to say she isn't affected by it, but it's like the difference between reading about a stranger dying in an accident in the newspaper, and witnessing someone you know die. _

_Interestingly, if she hadn't been acquainted with Gurnarde and Walker, I don't think Mar would have been as affected emotionally as she was by being in the room full of dead mermaids and fishmen._

* * *

_**Once again, thanks for the wonderful reviews, corrections and feedback (and don't stop)! I appreciate your feedback, and it's your comments that help me improve.**_

_**Incidentally, if anyone has been doing some rereading of the earlier chapters, you might have noticed I've been going back and doing some revising. The Disinfector no longer SPEAKS IN ALL CAPS CONSTANTLY FOR PARAGRAPHS ON END, he only does it when he's shouting. Oh and the narrator is a little less obnoxious. He's still obnoxious though. Also, corrected some shoddy grammar and punctuation. If you guys see any, do let me know!**_

_**In case any one is wondering what's going on with my writing schedule, I'll probably be working on finishing this story before I go on to 'Supernova Eleven' and 'Though a Bird Can't Fly'. I'm sorry for the wait, but I am not giving up on them, I'm just prioritising the one I'm currently most into. Stay tuned!**_

_**Oh and I nearly forgot: **_

_**Reader colourdrifter requested a sketch of the Red's hybrid form. I threw in a chibi Walker in there just for kicks. The the sketch is in my DA, link on my profile.**_


	30. The Monster Hidden In Plain Sight

_**A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed the last chapter! I was kind of surprised by the comparatively quiet response, but figured I depressed the heck out of everyone (either that or people were mad at me for killing off Drake) and no one was in much of a mood to comment. Whoops! Sorry! Here's another chapter to make up for it:**_

* * *

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!**

A Deconstruction, in which equal amounts of 'WTF?'s and 'Hah I knew it!'s occur.

**Chapter 30: The Monster Hidden In Plain Sight**

* * *

"Marie... Marie, wake up, please!"

The voice of her mother seemed to be coming from far away, but part of Mar didn't want to wake up. She knew she should, but she was just so tired, and waking up would mean having to face death and horror and fear again and she was just so weary of it all...

But she opened her eyes anyway. The room came into focus, and she became aware of both her mother's and Walker's anxious faces were looking down at her.

"Mom?"

Mar's mother proceeded to praise a varied collection of deities as she pulled Mar up, hugged her close and burst into fresh tears.

"Lizard hunam not kill little hunam captain!" Walker sounded rather relieved.

Still held tightly in Mrs. Suesse's embrace, Mar could see over her mother's shoulder the column of fire that had been the Mer-King's display. And on her left...

"Don't look," Mrs. Suesse whispered, and turned her away. But it was too late, Mar had seen him, sprawled out on the floor, the accursed puppet-controller still blinking merrily away on the back of his neck as if the body it controlled still had life in it.

No, waking up was even worse. Her mom had killed Drake for her, and that man had been a friend, someone who had saved her life.

And it was all so wrong.

Almost as if reading her mind, her mother started speaking frantically. "Marie, I had to do it. Please understand, it was the only way..."

She understood of course. Even without the Logic-Logic fruit she could understand the reasoning behind that decision. But part of her was still angry, angry at her mother, angry at St. Magnus, angry at the scientists who had created such a horrible device and put it on another living being. Most of all, she was angry at herself for bringing them back, even though she knew it made no sense. Then she remembered what Drake had said back in the slave pen when he had found out about the passage of time, what seemed like so long ago.

"Damn it all, " Mar choked out, buried her face into her mother's shoulder and wept.

Gurnarde, seeing her grief, kneeled over Drake's body and reverently covered it with her red cloak.

"He was an honourable human and a worthy foe, Captain. It grieves me that we were forced to do what we did... although you should have left that to me. I do not think killing is your forte," she added, addressing Mrs. Suesse.

"Marie's my daughter," Mrs. Suesse replied fiercely, still holding Mar close. "I'll do whatever I have to."

Gurnarde nodded and turned to look at the Mer-King's still-burning pyre. "Indeed you did. The great extremes we go to for those we love."

The light of the fire was reflected in the mermaid's eyes as she said this. In fact, they seemed unnaturally bright.

"Gurnarde is being sad?"

"I'd forgotten how magnificent he was, Brother. It had been so long since Loguetown."

"The Merman-King, he was someone special to you?" Mar's mother asked Gurnarde tentatively.

Gurnarde took her time before answering: "He was the shining star of our people. He was my king. He was _everything._" She seemed lost in thought for a while, then continued bitterly: "He was lost to us during the Battle of Loguetown. Oh... what a weakling of a knight he had by his side then, who not only failed to protect her liege lord, but also let the enemy steal his body and display it as a trophy for twenty years."

Suddenly Mar knew what it was that Gurnarde had been seeking so desperately from St. Magnus' mansion. It wasn't just about honouring the dead. It was _redemption_.

Mar's mother was staring at Gurnarde in horror. "I had no idea... I am so sorry."

"So you should be, Tenryuubito. Your kind alone has done more damage to my race than any other." Gurnarde's tone was curt. "Yet for this death I cannot fault you entirely. My king and those of his blood— Ryuuboshi and Manboshi-sama, our Poseidon— they all died honourably leading an army to rescue the hero of Fishman Island: Straw-Hat Luffy."

The line of conversation seemed to be veering into a dangerous direction. It also brought Mar out of her momentary breakdown.

"Gurnarde, wait. My mom isn't..."

"Ah yes Captain... I have to say, during our discussions, you seem to have neglected to mention that your mother happened to be a Tenryuubito."

"What? Oh that, my mom isn't a really a Tenryuubito. I mean she's all dressed up like one I know, but she was just pretending to be to fool St. Magnus, you see...

Gurnarde shook her head and held a hand up to stop her. "There is no need for that, Captain. I understand your reasons for doing so. It would have been wiser if you had been more forthright, but rest assured that as she is your mother, I have decided to not make her my prey. She has nothing to fear from me."

"Uh... thanks." Mar decided it was just easier to go along with Gurnarde's reasoning rather than try and explain the real situation to her. Gurnarde seemed to be done reminiscing anyway and was moving to address the situation at hand.

"Once the Captain is recovered, We should take our leave. I plan to burn this wretched place down behind us— it will also serve as a send off for your fallen ally. He will not mind the honour of sharing a pyre with my King and my kin."

"I'm OK, let's go find my Dad and the Disinfector," Mar said quickly.

Not strictly true, as she had bruises around her neck (her mother had them too). Mar was also sure she had a few more where she had been slammed against the ground. But overall, nothing seemed to be broken.

As it turned out, however, they didn't have to leave the room to find her rest of her crew. The rest of her crew found them first.

"There they are!"

Out of the ruins of the first doorway, Mar saw two familiar figures emerge. Her father, gun in hand and looking rather unlike his normal self with a bandolier and utility belt, and The Disinfector in his familiar hazard-suit. Let's be glad he ditched the Cipher Pol outfit, as it would have been rather distracting and probably derailed the story with its sheer stylishness.

"Dad! Disinfector!"

"Mar! Blake!"

"Garreth!"

Mrs. Suesse had taken off at a run. The next moment, both Mar's parents had jumped into each other's arms, and in Mar's opinion, proceeded to be thoroughly embarrassing. I should mention that the fact that all this was going on in front of her crew probably didn't help either.

"Well I'm glad _everyone's_ fine," mumbled Mar to herself, determinedly staring at the ceiling with burning cheeks.

Incidentally, everyone present other than the Suesses seemed to be suddenly anxious to find something to be preoccupied with.

"I think I shall proceed with setting the rest of this room on fire," Gurnarde announced hastily, and trotted off, giving the motionless body of St. Magnus a kick as she passed it. Apparently, St. Magnus hadn't possessed Roronoa Zoro's mystifying ability to lose pints of blood and remain alive.

_**"The Disinfector presents his greetings to Captain Mar and would like to know if Captain Mar requires medical attention?"**_

"I'm OK. Walker?"

Walker gave a non-committal grunt and followed after Gurnarde.

"I guess that means he's OK."

The Disinfector turned to look at St. Magnus, then at Drake's covered corpse. _**"Cloak is mermaid's. Who is the dead?"**_

"A fellow slave who was escaping with us." A thought struck Mar. "Actually I think you know him... It's X. Drake."

This piqued The Disinfector's interest. He squatted down next to the body and lifted a corner of the cloak so he could see Drake's face.

_**"Affirmed. Is same person. The Disinfector did not know he survived Battle of Loguetown."**_

Then he froze.

But Mar never did get to ask what was wrong, because just at the moment she saw it too, and the very sight of it froze the blood in her veins.

The supposedly dead man had twitched.

But before Mar could ask The Disinfector if he had seen what she had seen, one of Drake's bloodshot eyes snapped open, and stared right back at her.

* * *

Now I know some of you will have wondered if Mar's devil-fruit power had somehow kicked in despite her sea-stone bands and brought Drake back to life, just like she did with Walker. Well, I regret to say no, the sea-stone is still in full effect.

So just what brought Drake back to life then? Well, not to worry, you'll find out soon enough.

* * *

Even as Mar watched, Drake's human eye (blue iris with bloody sclera) transformed into the eye of a vastly different creature (yellow, with amber rings). The rest of his body followed suit.

Mar would have screamed if she hadn't been too startled to make any sound other than a rather wheezy kind of whimper. The Disinfector, however, had no such restriction. He managed a shout of warning just before Drake rose to his feet.

Now that the cloak was no longer covering him, Mar saw with no small amount of shock that the damage her mother's point-blank shooting had done to Drake's head had since regenerated. But something was wrong, nothing drove the point home clearer when with frightening speed, Drake lunged forward and grabbed the Disinfector by the neck.

Of course, being in the hazard suit meant The Disinfector had considerably more protection than the bare throats of the last two people Drake had tried to strangle. He also had considerably more combat options, such as putting a scalpel right into the eye of his assailant.

No creature, even a fast-regenerating zoan, likes having a scalpel in their eye. Drake roared in pain and flung the Disinfector across the room. Then he turned around, scalpel still embedded in his eye, and fixed his gaze on the trembling Mar.

"R-red? Drake?"

There was no intelligence or recognition in his eyes. Just a mad, mindless hatred.

It was at this point when Mar realised what a mistake she had made by not getting the Disinfector to remove her sea-stone bands right away when she had the chance. Now she was right back where she started—in danger and powerless to do anything about it other than back away slowly.

She wasn't however, expecting to be saved by her father. Gunshots rang out, and Drake's head jerked up, then turned away from her towards the source of the sound.

"Marie, RUN!" she could hear her mother scream as her father continued emptying his firearm.

Mar had no idea if her father dared to shoot while she was close by and if bullets would do any damage to the transformed Drake's hide. But she quickled found out that they were certainly very good as distraction. Mar turned and bolted in the opposite direction as Drake snarled and turned his attention towards her parents.

She felt more than saw Gurnarde swoop past her, almost like a raptor diving for prey. Behind the mermaid ran Walker, and as Mar passed him, she could have sworn that there was a guilty expression on the fishman's face.

It was only when she got out of range and slowed down to catch her breath, did she see the Disinfector lying on the floor where he had been thrown.

"Disinfector! My sea-stone bands, you've got to get them off me so I can—"

It was then when Mar noticed he was bleeding from several long gashes that seemed to have gotten through his suit. Even with his face hidden behind the visor she could tell he was in pain. Then she recognised the injury pattern.

"Walker's spines..."

"Damn dino threw me right into them._** Envenomed**_," The Disinfector/Law said with gritted teeth. "Can't feel my arm—" Then he broke off into partially-suppressed swearing as another spasm of pain appeared to wrack his body.

"Do you need me to treat you?" Mar steeled herself with the idea that she might have to deal with a needle again.

Much to her relief the Disinfector shook his head. _**"Already administered antivenin, but requires time to take effect. Will not be able to exert powers until."**_

"Okay. I just hope the two of them can hold Drake off without killing him. This isn't his fault. There's something wrong with him, it must be that puppet-controller... Disinfector, if we find some way to get it off him, we could free him of—"

"That's not Drake. That man is dead," Law cut her off.

"What are you talking about? I told you, that's X. Drake! I talked to him, he saved my life..."

"No. Whatever that thing used to be, it's not Drake anymore. He's gone Berserker. There's nothing left of him to save."

* * *

To understand what's going on, we need to go back a bit. I doubt many of you will remember a certain conversation security had had earlier about the possibility of Drake going 'berserker'. Well, it's called foreshadowing and yes it was important.

So just what is this Berserker thing? Well let's exercise my Narrator powers to dig up an old correspondence between Dr. Kusanagi, head of the Puppet Controller Division to Dr. Vegapunk himself:

* * *

_Sir,_

_A dangerous problem has recently surfaced with the first batch of successful test subjects._

_A total of twelve so far have died post-procedure due complications, but the point of concern is a previously unknown state the deceased enter post-mortem._

_Out of the twelve who died, three exhibited this condition, and spontaneously reanimated after being certified as clinically dead._

_The reanimated subjects exhibited mindless aggression and proceeded to rampage through the labs and morgue. Our security personnel were compelled to destroy them with sea-stone weaponry to prevent further destruction to property._

_It is confirmed that all three 'Berserkers', as they have been dubbed, were from the group of awakened zoan of devil-fruit users which underwent the Rumble Drug testing program. Post-mortem on the remains showed high-levels of regeneration in body tissue, but none in the degenerated brain tissue._

_We have reproduced the effect successfully with one of our milder subjects (guinea pig zoan). All attempts to control the creature after it entered the Berserker state failed and we were forced to cull the creature eventually._

_We theorise the Berserker state is triggered by a conflict between a deteriorated nervous system (a result of death) and the puppet-controller implant. The Awakened Zoan's unparalleled ability to regenerate has been proven to persist after brain death if a puppet-controller is present and the subject has been previously been exposed to the Rumble Drug._

_While the discovery initially seemed exciting, sadly, the brain tissue cannot regenerate, and the only result seems to be the 'Berserker Zoan'— a mindless and uncontrollable Awakened Zoan in Rumble State 3. Any attempt to issue commands from the controller implant appear ineffective._

_I seek your advice as to the next course of action._

_Regards,_

_Dr. Kusanagi_

* * *

_Dr. Kusanagi,_

_Kindly test if damage to the controller produces the same effect. If this is the case we may have to revisit our implant design._

_Exercise caution when dealing with existing at-risk subjects. Those with carnivorous zoan fruits are particularly dangerous and not be allowed enter the state._

_Any corpses of zoan-type subjects should be incinerated immediately on expiration._

_Once your testing is done, send out advisory warnings to all other parties any of our fixed zoans might have been sent to. This includes the Tenryuubito owner of the recently purchased X-10._

_Regards,_

_Dr. Vegapunk_

* * *

And now you know. Sadly, Mar wasn't privy to my information, so she wasn't as accepting of the situation as she could have been.

"Look, I know what happened to Chopper but that doesn't mean Drake can't be saved. You've got to try! How do you know he can't be saved just because of that Berserker thingy?"

"Because this isn't the first time I've run into a Berserker," Law said, tone of his voice lowering. "And because a Berserker Zoan was exactly what killed my crew."

* * *

_Captain Trafalgar Law's mad laughter rang through the submarine's operating theatre, sending chills down the spines of the Heart Pirates._

_"A surgeon!" Law gasped between bouts of mad mirth. "The Surgeon of Death!"_

_"C-captain?"_

_Then he stopped laughing, and in its absence a chilling silence filled the room._

_No one dared to speak. This was highly irregular. Their Captain was known to smirk. Sometimes he would smile smugly and show glee. But he did not laugh. Certainly not in the unrestrained, uncontrollable way he had done earlier._

_It took the beeping sound of the heart monitor to break the silence._

_"What the—? Captain, Chopper's heart started beating again!"_

_Law did not answer, but turned to look at the monitor. Sure enough, the flatline on the display had been replaced by jagged peaks. It was as though the curtain of despair had lifted, and he recomposed himself quickly._

_"What procedure did you perform?"_

_"We didn't really... he came back on his own."_

_"Son of a b—" Law said as he hurried back to the table. "You're not dying on me after all, Dr. Chopper."_

_But before he could get to the table, the patient stirred, much to the surprise of the helpers._

_"More sedative!"_

_The anesthetist immediately increased the dosage, but it seemed to have little effect on the now-thrashing patient. Chopper was transforming, first into his large gorilla-like form, then into an even more monstrous form Law had never seen but had heard about: Monster Chopper._

_"Chopper! Stop!"_

_But the creature showed no recognition. Its bulk was filling the sub, tearing apart the metal bulkheads as though they were made of paper. The Heart Pirates were scrambling away in panic, and were saved from the rampaging monster when the creature was suddenly disassembled into a tangle of disconnected limbs._

_But it was too late and the damage had been done. Water was pouring in everywhere, and the drowning yellow submarine was going to become the tomb of her crew._

_"That wasn't Chopper anymore, was it?" Jean Bart said resignedly, as the wave of water from the breach rushed towards them._

_Law did not answer. He did not panic either. In the split-seconds he had left, he expanded the 'Room' around himself and his men. His thought had been to rearrange the water and debris in the Room to somehow keep the crew alive, but in the anxiety of the moment, something new happened._

_There was a jumble of images as the world flashed, shifted and the screams melted away._

_And then the next moment, Trafalgar Law was standing in on solid rock, the blue ocean stretching out before him._

_He recognised where he was: the shore of the island they had been sheltering under. A little bit off shore, the water was bubbling, marking the site the submarine had been submerged._

_It was then when Law understood what had happened. Somehow in the heat of the moment, he had managed to shift an object from one Room to a completely separate one._

_"We teleported," he said aloud. They'd lost the sub, but picking up an amazing new facet to his power was not too shabby as compensation. "Damn, guys, I never knew I could do that..."_

_But no one answered him. Law turned around, and the horrible truth sank in._

_He had teleported— but he had done it alone._

* * *

"I told you, didn't I? I was the one who killed Chopper. Not just the first time, but the second time, and he was already dead then. It's the same thing with Drake now, and entertaining any foolish notions that you'd find some way to save him'll get everyone killed."

Mar felt sick to her stomach. Between finding out about the Heart Pirates, Chopper and that Drake was now irrevocably some sort of zombie pirate dinosaur, the whole turn of events felt like some kind of sadistic nightmare. She was contemplating if it was worth pinching herself when her parents came running up, having circled around and avoided the combat zone.

"Marie! Thank goodness!"

"Disinfector! We need you to do your port thing out of here. That godzilla's ridiculous, gunfire doesn't seem to do more than annoy it. And it's healing faster than we can damage it. No point trying to beat it, let's get the other two to pull back and—"

The Disinfector had shot Mr. Suesse a glare. Apparently Law still didn't enjoy being ordered about.

"Oh, sorry, didn't realise you were injured. Will you be able to port or do we move on to Plan C?"

_**"Ability to port pending antivenin effect. Once ready will resume original plan."**_

While this was going on, a battle still raged in the middle of the room. The mermen siblings looked rather hard-pressed to keep Drake on the defensive.

Mar could see clearly now just how much more powerful the Berserker Drake was compared to his full form. It was like a Monster Chopper version of Drake, but applied to a beast that was already terrifyingly monster-like to begin with. The end result was like the manifestation of every bad Jurassic Park inspired nightmare she had ever had.

It was a bit maddening, because Mar knew both her and Law's powers were the ideal counters to the Berserker Zoan, and by sheer bad luck they were both forced out of this fight.

Meanwhile, her father was methodically reloading his gun, muttering something about how he should have gone for the elephant gun instead.

"You're going out to fight that thing again, Garreth? But..." Mrs. Suesse's face was ashen.

"Even if I can't hurt that thing I might be able to distract it. We've got to hold it off until The Disinfector's ready to get us out of here. And those two look like they need the help."

_**"Suesse, do not engage. Port is almost ready," **_The Disinfector commanded, as he attempted to wiggle his fingers. They moved, but not very easily._** "Group needs to be closer. Can only do this once, any error during porting could be fatal."**_

Mar mentally ruled out removing the sea-stone bands for time being. It looked like Law would be needing all his strength just to do his warp thing, and her father was right, there was no point trying to waste whatever little reserves they had of his or her power on Berserker Drake. The right thing to do now was to make sure they got away safely, as their main objective long term was still to find Madelyn and give the monster her long-overdue reckoning.

"Gurnarde, Walker! We're getting out of here! But you need to get closer!"

The merman siblings acknowledged Mr. Suesse's shouted communication and began executing an organised retreat, each taking turns to cover each other's movement.

But just as it seemed that the retreat was working and a few more seconds would get them close enough for Law to activate his 'Room', it all went horribly wrong. Walker, who was fending off Drake while Gurnarde took her turn to retreat, dodged an attack from the beast. It was a move the fishman had pulled many times in the fight already, and it proved to be his undoing, because the beast, mindless as he was presumed to be, appeared to have wised up to it. He aimed for where Walker's dodge would put him instead, with tragic results.

Mar's scream had Gurnarde whirling around to see her brother caught between Drake's jaws. Any other creature with any sense of self-preservation trying this would have let go very quickly once the delicate insides of the mouth were pierced by the fishman's venomous spines. But not the mindless zoan that was Drake. The wicked jaws had almost closed completely before the pain finally registered.

The monster spat Walker out, but too late. The fishman, crushed and bleeding, tumbled to the floor and lay lifeless.

"WALKER!"

"Brother."

It was not a scream. Gurnarde had whispered the word, but the tone was the same as when she had uttered Fukaboshi's name.

"Disinfector... Walker, is he...?" whispered Mr. Suesse.

_**"Fishman Walker. Is."**_

"How terrible..." Mar's mother choked out.

At that moment, Gurnarde turned to them, and Mar saw the haunted, dead look in the mermaid's eyes.

"Disinfector, that last plan you told me of, do you intend to proceed with it?"

_**"Affirmative."**_

"Then take them and go. Make sure it does not fail. Godspeed, and it has been an honour."

Then, ignoring protests from the group, Gurnarde turned and charged at the Berserker Zoan, which was slowly approaching, still shaking its head in pain.

"Gurnarde, NO! Disinfector, wait! Don't listen to her! There's another way! Get my sea-stone bands off and I can resurrect Walker. Don't port—"

But Law was not listening. The blue light of the 'Room' appeared around them, and the last image Mar saw of 'Sand-Dragon' Gurnarde was her silhouette, outlined against the burning room, fin-wings unfurled and looking every bit like the mythical beast she had been named for. And before Mar could stop them, everything melted away to darkness.

* * *

At first Mar thought she had passed out again, the pitch-darkness was so complete. But there was the sound of heavy breathing, at least one of them belonging to her mother (who appeared to be hyperventilating). Then her father's voice pierced the nothingness.

"Mar? Blake? Disinfector? Is everyone all right?"

"I'm here Dad. And Mom's with me, but I think she's kinda freaked out."

"Your mother's claustrophobic." There was a clicking sound, then an eerie glow filled the room. From the light of a strange cone-like dial her father was shining around, Mar could see they were in some sort of sealed chamber. The Disinfector was crouching next to her father, while her mother was a little behind her, hugging her knees in panic.

"Blake, honey. It's going to be ok... we'll be out of here soon. Mar, help your mother. Disinfector, what's going on? This isn't where we're supposed to port to."

The only response was a breathless gasp, followed by wet-sounding coughing.

"Sorry, Disinfector. Guess you reached your limit for now."

The man in question nodded, but did not speak as he coughed again and attempted to recover. Seeing his condition, Mar bit back the words she had been on the verge of saying to him about the stupidity of them leaving the Mer-King's room like that when he could have just removed her sea-stone bands and they could have saved Walker and Gurnarde. She was upset, but now was not the time for reproach. She had to attend to her mother.

"Mom? It's ok. We're all right."

But her words did not reassure Mrs. Suesse, who finally managed to speak.

"M-marie... _Run_. Get away with your father."

"Mom, it's ok. Don't worry. Once The Disinfector catches his breath we'll get out of here. Are you hurt? The Disinfector is a doctor, he'll be able to—

"I wouldn't waste my time explaining to her what I'm capable of, Mar," a voice, human and showing no sign of weakness, cut her off. Mar turned in confusion to look at the source of the voice: The Disinfector. He appeared to have recovered from his exertion, and had pulled off his visored helmet so his bare face was now plainly visible to all present.

"She knows very well," Trafalgar Law continued coldly, his grey eyes fixed upon the trembling woman behind Mar.

"Don't you, _Madelyn_?"

* * *

**End of Chapter 30**


	31. The Mystery Of The New Pirate Age

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!**

A Deconstruction, in which an army of skeletons come tumbling out of the closet.

* * *

**Chapter 31: The Mystery Of The New Pirate Age**

* * *

"...Madelyn?"

Mar was doing a magnificent impression of a pufferfish, that was, gaping at The Disinfector with her mouth hanging half-open. The idea of her mother being Monkey D. Madelyn was so ludicrous that her mind pretty much rebelled and slowed to a stop.

It took the memory of Gurnarde making a similar confusion to jump-start her thought process again. Once she thought of it, she was filled with relief because it all made sense. Of course, St. Magda was Madelyn, and Mar's mother was the mirror image of St. Magda, so it was the most natural mistake in the world for The Disinfector to make.

"Disinfector, that's not Monkey D. Madelyn, it's my mom. She's been impersonating St. Magda, who's actually the real Madelyn, that's all..." Mar trailed off when she realised that Law's eyes were narrowing. He was not buying it. Not the slightest bit.

Realising a change in tactics was in order, Mar turned to her mother: "Mom, he thinks you're Monkey D. Madelyn, the Pirate Queen. I mean, it's just a case of mistaken identity. Tell him who you are!"

"Yes, Madelyn... why don't we tell the truth about who you really are? Or should I call you 'Blake-Ho Seau' or whatever name it is you go by now?" Law's tone was mocking.

"I told you, my mom's not Madelyn!" Mar persisted. "Her name's is Blake, and she's always been from our world, not this one."

"Always? And just how would you, with your paltry sixteen years of age, know that?"

"Hey, what's going on?" interrupted Mr. Suesse in bewilderment. "Disinfector, why are you heckling my wife?"

"Because that woman isn't who you think she is. How long have you known her? I'll bet it wasn't for more than twenty years."

Mr. Suesse looked surprised, but said nothing, which in itself, said plenty.

"Ah. And you've never met her parents, have you? Or did she just so conveniently happen to be an orphan? Did you fall for her sob story?"

Perhaps it hit a little too close to home. Mr. Suesse's face darkened. "Hey! I don't know what's come over you, Disinfector, but I've had enough—"

Unfortunately, Law was way ahead of him. There was a flash of blue light and in the next moment, Mr. Suesse's gun was in the doctor's hand and pointed back at its owner. Everyone present froze.

"Keep your distance," Law warned. Then seeing the shocked look of betrayal in Mr. Suesse's face, he added: "You're a good man, Suesse. A far, far better man than that witch deserves. I haven't forgotten that you saved my life back when the Sunny went down, but I have been waiting for this moment for twenty years, and no one, _no one,_ is going to stand in my way, understand!?"

Despite being held at gunpoint, Mr. Suesse bristled at this. "Since we've been dumped in this god-forsaken world, I've had my family threatened and kidnapped time after time. If you think I'm going to just stand by let it happen again, you've got another think coming along!"

"Garreth, stop it."

The attention of both men turned to Mrs. Suesse, who seemed to have recovered from her panic. Her face was still pale, but there was a set, controlled expression on it, the kind that one assumes when the worst has happened and the only thing you can do is put on a brazen face and make the best of things.

"Please, put away the gun. There's no need for that. Garreth's no threat. He can't possibly do anything to you."

"I beg to differ, Madelyn. I have too high an opinion of Suesse here to underestimate him."

"Law, I beg you... please."

For a moment, a strange, glazed look crossed Law's face. Then it abruptly disappeared, replaced with a cold, indignant rage.

"_How dare you_," Law hissed, his irises seemingly contracted into little dots. "How dare you even _think_ of trying that on me again!"

Mar shook her head in confusion. For a moment, she'd been overwhelmed with a comforting feeling of conviction that her mother was right, that everything would be fine and...

... then her head cleared and it was also then when she realised her mother had called Law by his true name.

"I never called him Law in front of you," Mar blurted out in horror, reeling from the implications of the slip. "How did you know his name? I never called him— Oh gawd it's true? _You're_ Madelyn? No, you can't be _Madelyn_!"

"Marie..."

"You can't be her! She's a monster! You're my mother and you care about people! You were brave and wonderful and saved me and freed Red and... you can't be _Her_! That witch just uses people and throws them away when she's done with them. You're not like that!"

"Isn't she?" Law commented dryly. "I doubt X. Drake would have agreed."

There was a period of dumbfounded silence. Mar did not want to believe it, but the ugly sense the comment made was undeniable.

"Red... y-you were only using him to escape," Mar breathed in horror. "Then when he became a liability you just killed him..."

"That's not true!" Mar's mother burst out. "Marie, I did it to save you! I didn't want to do it, I had no other choice!"

Mar was backing away from her mother, a familiar figure now-turned into a stranger. No, worse than a stranger... the one person she despised the most in the world.

"...it was what Red wanted. You heard him say it himself..."

"That means precious little, Madelyn," Law scoffed. "You just tried to charm us with your devil-fruit powers earlier, didn't you? A dose of that on poor, mind-controlled Drake and I'll bet he became just like the New Heart Pirates, eager to die for his beloved queen."

For the first time in the confrontation, her mother looked furious. "Don't you dare insult the memory of that man! I never even used any of my powers—" Mar's mother cut herself off, then took a deep, calming, breath. "No, not on him. I only did what I did just now because my family was in danger, and because I knew what you were capable of."

It was as good as a confession to Mar.

"Wh-who are you? Where's my mother? What have you done with my real mother?"

Mrs. Suesse turned back to her, and said gently: "Marie, I am your mother." She reached out a reassuring hand to Mar, but Mar recoiled from her touch.

"No! Stop lying! You're not my mother! _Stay away from me!_"

That thing that she had thought to be her mother flinched at the rejection, but she did not give up just yet.

"Marie..."

"I don't want to hear it! My mother isn't a monster! _My mother isn't a monster like you!"_

"Mar, that's enough." Mr. Suesse's reprimand stopped her ranting, but it did nothing to stop Law from continuing his.

"So that's how it was, Suesse? A life built on lies. I can't imagine it worked out very well for either of you."

"That's none of your business."

"Oh yes it is. Before she came out of nowhere, latched on to you with her 'love', and then wrecked your life with her mountain of lies, she had already done the same to me. I was her first. You were just the follow-up."

This stunned the other man for a moment.

"Blake, what is he talking about?"

Mrs. Suesse turned from the pleading gaze of her husband, then at the angry, tearful one from her daughter, then back at the dark doctor, who was smiling in cruel triumph.

Then she clenched her fists. "I'll bet you're happy now, Law. You've turned my family against me."

"No more lies, Madelyn. Tell them the truth. If you don't, I will."

"I don't have a choice now, do I?" she said bitterly, tears forming in her eyes. "Fine! Since you're so determined to make me say it, I'll say it. Just point the gun away!"

Law lowered the weapon so he no longer held Mr. Suesse at gunpoint, but from his stance Mar could tell he hadn't let down his guard.

"Say it."

Mrs. Suesse took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry you all had to find out this way. But what he says is true. Marie, Garreth, I wasn't from your world originally. I was born here in Mariejois, as a Tenryuubito. My true name is Magda— St. Magda, but at one time I was also known as Monkey D. Madelyn, the Pirate Queen, the wielder of the Human-Human fruit, Model: Faerie."

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_The last weeks of my life have been wonderful. After leaving Mariejois I made my way to Sabaody. The freedom... it is beyond words, diary._

_Spent my day in the park. Then I hung out at a pirate bar, like a real pirate. The pirates here are still buzzing about the admiral incident and some huge war they had._

_I'm kind of disappointed that I haven't run into any cool pirates yet. The ones here all have small, petty dreams and the ones that do have bigger dreams have no chance of making them come true because they are loser pirates._

_Some of them tried to bother me, but I transformed and after a little bit of 'pushing' they were pretty much not an issue anymore._

_Where are Law and the other cool Supernovas? If they all left for the New World already it would be such a pain to have to go after them. I don't know anything about sailing._

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_Good news, I managed to get some news about my Law. It seems that he didn't leave for the New World yet. I have a chance of catching up with him._

_I have to meet up with him no matter what. It is our destiny to be together._

* * *

Madelyn felt her heart racing in her chest. Finally, after months of searching, Trafalgar Law was finally there and in front of her. Well, not strictly true, he was a little to the side and had his back to her (not that she was complaining about the view from that particular angle). But he was there, in the flesh, and that was the important thing.

"He looks even better in person," she murmured faintly to herself, her breath coming in fast as the object of her pursuit turned around to look for something and she caught a glimpse of his glorious face.

Of course, now that she had finally caught up with Law, there was a different kind of catching to do, namely his attention. She figured it wouldn't be difficult; she knew she was gorgeous to begin with. In fact, she'd already attracted too much attention from unwanted quarters (mainly horny pirates) because of it. Fortunately, her devil-fruit ability could sense their intentions from a mile away, and allowed her to avoid situations she didn't want to be in.

As for the cases where she couldn't avoid them, there was still the Faerie Aura. She had called it that after discovering that in her zoan forms, seeing the wishes of people also gave her a certain aura and an easy way to sway their thoughts to suit her. It was strange, how effortless it was. The more eager these people were to achieve their dreams, the more they could sense her ability to potentially realise them, and in turn they developed a subconscious reverence for her, the embodiment of their wishes.

"We're all ready to set sail, Captain!" the furry polar bear that was one of the Heart Pirate crew announced. Madelyn hurried forwards. If she didn't manage to join the crew here, tracking them down again would be such a hassle.

"Wait!"

The Heart Pirates didn't seem to realise that she was addressing them, they went on with their work.

A wave of irritation washed over her. True, she had not transformed (not that anyone could tell when she did because she tended looked very similar to how she did in her human form) and her faerie aura was not in effect, but she was already beautiful to begin with. Surely even the sight of her as she was should turn some heads?

Maybe they just hadn't heard her. So she raised her voice and tried again. "Captain Trafalgar Law! Wait!"

That did the trick. Every hand on deck stopped and stared, some with wary expressions on their faces. She paid them no mind, her attention was solely focused on Law's face, which was even more mesmerising up close.

"Yes?"

She had to tear her eyes away from the gorgeous curve of his lips. As it was, her voice came out more breathlessly than she would have liked.

"Tra-trafalgar Law? I'm Monkey D. Madelyn, sister of Monkey D. Luffy. You saved his life, so I wanted to thank you in person."

She felt a thrill run up her spine as his stormy grey eyes swept over her. But just as she had stoked herself up with anticipation for his declaration that he had fallen in love with her at first sight, his eyes narrowed. She felt her heart drop as he looked over her suspiciously.

_He's not falling for it. He knows it isn't true. He's too clever for that._

Madelyn's dazzling smile wavered as Law seemed to frown before speaking. But instead of flat-out asking her what she was up to, he simply said: "So you've thanked me. You can go now," and turned his back to her before resuming what he had been doing earlier.

For several minutes she stood there staring dumbly, stunned at his rudeness. The man had not only snubbed her, he was not even bothering to hide the fact he didn't think much of her. Then her pride erupted into indignant anger. She had given up her former life for this? She was a _Tenryuubito_, he was a _pirate_, he had no right to disrespect her like that! Well, she wasn't going to give up just like that. No, she would go into battle with all flags flying. Seething with anger, Madelyn subtly transformed into her full zoan form, and projected her aura at them full force.

The effect wasn't even subtle. The crew had been busy minding their own business before and thoroughly ignoring her. At the blast, they whirled around and to a man gaped at her as though she was the one person they had been looking for for all their lives.

Her Law too, was gazing at her as though he was finally seeing her properly for the first time. Gone was his cool composure and trademark smirk, and Madelyn was disappointed to find that the loss of this expression and his mysterious aloofness reduced how attractive he seemed by quite a lot.

But any reservations she had about what she had done were immediately forgotten as to the cheers of the crew, Law dropped on one knee and asked her to join his crew.

Just like it always happened in her dreams.

* * *

Madelyn smiled at her reflection in the dressing mirror of her luxurious private cabin.

Everything was wonderful. It was all going so well. She had joined the crew, and in the space of a few weeks, managed to get herself a bounty and a reputation. And even better, the dreamy Captain Law was in love with her. Everyone absolutely adored her and agreed with everything she did or said.

But as she tied her gold-patterned silk sash around her waist, she frowned. By all rights, she should be contented. Yet something felt missing. She'd thought things would feel different now that she found her soulmate and true friends who loved her.

If it had all changed, then why did it all feel so similar to being back in her father's house in Mariejois?

"Madelyn! Madelyn! Pirate ship on the horizon!" Bepo had burst into her room in a panic. "The jolly roger looks like Eustass Kid's!"

"Have you told Captain Law yet?"

"He's busy in his laboratory, so we all thought it would be more important to let you know first. After all, you always know exactly what to do."

Madelyn was flattered and laughed. "Well, tell the others I'll be right there."

"Right away, Madelyn!" The bear bowed deeply before reversing out of the room.

Madelyn was left staring at the empty doorframe with an eerie sense of deja vu. That had been the exact same way her servants had used to exit a room occupied by a Tenryuubito.

* * *

"Well you know what they say: 'A worthy friend is a precious treasure and a worthy foe the next best thing*'", Killer said as he sipped his beer through a straw.

Eustass Kid laughed jovially. "So that means Madelyn here's the next best thing to treasure. So true!"

The ship of the Kid Pirates was anchored next to the Heart Pirate sub and a lavish party was in full swing. Less than a day ago the two ships had been in a similar position, except that they had been on the verge of boarding and slaughtering each other then. In fact, if it hadn't been for Madelyn's charisma, all that certainly would have had come to pass.

Instead, Kid had fallen head-over-heels for Madelyn and almost instantly offered the Heart Pirates a pirate alliance (which was rejected because they wanted to remain rivals). Amazingly Kid hadn't even been the slightest bit offended or jealous of Law, and had insisted on throwing a party to celebrate their official rivalry. He also said something about how Madelyn would leave Law and fall for him once he became the Pirate King.

Madelyn found this flattering, but found it unsettling that Law hadn't seemed even the slightest bit jealous at this. In fact, now that she thought about it, his behaviour had been downright off for the past few days. While she was sure he remained devoted to her, there were moments when he seemed not quite there, almost as if lost in a daydream. He spoke only when spoken to, and did not contribute to the conversation. Madelyn couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. After all she had gone through and finally achieving her dream of being with him, she had never figured her soulmate would be well... boring.

On the other hand, Eustass, while ax-crazy, exuded manic charm and fierce longing for her. Briefly, Madelyn wondered if perhaps she had made her choice a bit too early. But as soon as the thought entered her mind, she dismissed it. No, she wasn't some cheap floozy like the disposable women who hung around her father. She was utterly faithful to her one true love: Law.

Perhaps his listlessness wasn't his fault. Yes, he was just overworked, what with holding both roles of ship's doctor and captain. Thinking it over, Madelyn promptly decided that what he needed was a lightening of his workload.

"Kid, we shouldn't party too long. Don't forget that Straw-Hat's gotten a lead on us already." Killer swapped his empty glass for a filled one and transferred his straw into it.

"Yeah, shame about that. Don't you just wish it was just both our crews going for One Piece, Madelyn? Imagine if something happened to delay them and we could get to One Piece before they do. Now that would be something! Where are the Marines when you need em? Pft, good for nothings!"

A sudden thought occurred to Madelyn. Perhaps the workload wasn't just it. Perhaps her Law had calculated and figured out Luffy would get to One Piece before them and had given up on his dream. Maybe if Luffy was out of equation, it would stir up his spirit again and she would have back the exciting Trafalgar Law she wanted.

And as fate would have it, Eustass Kid had given her the means to do it.

* * *

"Captain! Did you hear? They're executing Straw-Hat Luffy in Loguetown!" Shachi yelled, wildly waving the paper the news coo had just dropped off.

Captain Madelyn of the Heart Pirates tried her best to looked shocked and horrified. "What? But how?"

Inwardly, she knew what had happened, of course. It had required some creative use of her faerie power to grant Eustass' wishes. But she had succeeded, and if things went according to plan, Luffy would be delayed for quite a while, leaving the Heart and Kid Pirates with a clear path to Raftel.

"We're ready to go in, Captain!" Bepo reported. "Just say when!"

"Very well men! Make your preparations, we sail for Raftel!"

"Raftel?" Dr. Law's voice cut-in, a note of confusion.

"Yes my love. No doubt Eustass will use this opportunity to go for One Piece. We musn't let him get away with it!"

"But isn't Luffy your brother? Aren't you going to rescue him?"

Madelyn started. Law was questioning her choices, something that normally didn't happen. In fact, the only other time this had occurred was when she had suggested taking over the captainship of the Heart Pirates and expanding the crew roster. Law had surprised her with how fiercely he had fought against the suggestion. It had taken a lot of charisma and pushing with her Faerie Aura to sway him over to her will again.

"Yes, and that's exactly why we must honour my brother's wish. He would want us to stop Kid."

"Luffy stormed Marinford to rescue his brother, Ace," Law persisted. "He—"

"—will be all right," Madelyn said firmly, projecting her faerie aura as much as she could. "Luffy has strong nakama and he would never forgive me if I embarrassed him and his crew like that. Trust me, my love."

Inwardly Madelyn was quaking with fear. The resistance Law was showing his time was unprecedented, and she wasn't quite sure what she would do if he truly rebelled against her orders.

For what seemed like the longest time she saw the struggling conflict in his eyes, then thankfully, the look faded away and he was her submissive Law again.

"Yes. Yes, you are right."

His tone lacked conviction, but Madelyn was so happy to get an agreement out of him that she didn't care.

Besides, it wasn't as if she had lied. Luffy did have a powerful and capable crew. They certainly wouldn't have any trouble rescuing their captain from the inept Marines. Luffy would be free and back on the hunt for One Piece soon enough.

Just a little delayed, that was all.

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_Luffy is dead!_

_Luffy. Is. Dead!_

_They've executed him and displayed the head on the broadcasts... it's so terrible I can't write any more._

_This wasn't supposed to happen. I never meant for him to be killed._

_I don't understand, his crew was on their way to save him. There were supposed to be all those other people who were going to save him. How could they have failed? What were they doing?_

_..._

_Why didn't they save him?_

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_I didn't feel like facing the crew today, so I pretended to be ill and stayed in bed all day._

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_I told the crew I was ill again today._

_Jean-Luc reported that Kid called our den-den mushi but I didn't feel like talking to him. Jean-Luc reported later that Kid stopped racing us and went on a rampage to slaughter the nearest Marine base._

_I wish people would stop talking about the execution and the war._

_I wish people could just forget about the whole thing and move on._

_I wish this would all just go away._

* * *

Eustass Kid would continue on his deranged rampage for years after the execution. Ultimately he met his defeat and demise at the hands of the youngest commodore in history, a fifteen-year old Lance D. Imba, but then again you guys know all you need to know about Imba already so I won't elaborate any further.

I suppose it was a reflection of how badly affected Madelyn was that it took her almost another half-day before she realised something else was amiss. Namely, she, the captain, was supposed to have been ill for the second day in a row and the ship's doctor had not come and attended to her 'illness' even once.

When this realisation occurred to her, she immediately sat up in alarm. Why hadn't Law come to see her? He should have been at her side from day one. Not only was he the doctor and it was his responsibility, but surely he would have been concerned about his lover? Had something happened to him? Not even bothering to change out of her bedclothes, Madelyn jumped out of bed and bolted out of the room.

"Captain! You've recovered!"

"I'm so glad you're up, Captain! We're getting all these pirate crews coming up and wanting to join us. We didn't know what to do!"

"Captain Madelyn..."

Ignoring the happy cries of the crew, Madelyn charged straight into the doctor's office.

It was deserted. And as a thorough search of the sub soon revealed, Law had disappeared, and everyone had been too worried about Madelyn to notice exactly when.

* * *

Of course, we already know what really happened to Law, what Madelyn did next and how it all culminated in a very disasterous showdown on the Heart Pirate sub.

Very few would however, come to know how those events turned out and eventually led to the greatest mystery of the new pirate age: The Disappearance of Monkey D. Madelyn.

* * *

"... When Squall stabbed you, I was so sure you had died. And the words you said to me, I couldn't get them out of my head. Until that moment, I never realised that my actions could be seen that way, what I had done..."

"If only that were true." Law did not attempt to disguise the disgust in his tone. "Considering you just ran away from the mess you created."

"I—you wished that I would get the hell away from you. Well, I _did_. I granted that wish. I wished myself away to a whole new other world, where no one knew of my name or what I had done."

"How incredibly nice for you. Why did you even bother to come back?"

"I never intended for that to happen," Mrs. Suesse, or rather, Madelyn, mumbled. "I never meant for my husband and daughter to get caught up with this."

"So that's why you made contact with that sack of bile Squall and sent him after those two," Law said contemplatively. "You were using him to get them back. Stupid decision, given what happened the last time he disobeyed your orders. Imagine what would have happened if he'd known who Suesse really was."

Mrs. Suesse shuddered. "I know that now. I was desperate then, sick with worry and cooped up in my father's mansion, not knowing if they were dead or alive."

Mar finally found her tongue. "Wait, so St. Magnus, he really was— you really are his daughter." Then another thought seemed to strike Mar. "Oh gawd, that means St. Magnus is my freaking grandfather. I'm actually from this world and a half-Tenryuubito. I'm related to that monster? Mom, how could you keep all this from me? Why? WHY?"

"It doesn't matter, Marie. We can't help who we're born to, but it doesn't change who we become."

"It changes everything! Everything I thought I knew about my life, it's all based on lies! How can I ever believe anything you tell me again?"

Her mother responded haltingly.

"I lied to you, Marie, it's true, but I only wanted to protect you from my legacy. None of it was your fault, you shouldn't have been involved."

"How very noble. I suppose it had nothing to do with your being ashamed of your past, Madelyn?" Law mocked.

There was a heavy silence, broken only by Mar's agitated muttering.

"I-I've been so blind. I should have noticed the signs all along. How you never had problems getting people to do things for you. And when we ended up here you weren't even confused about how things worked in this world like Dad was. You knew exactly what to do and how to act like a Tenryuubito, but all this time I thought you were just the best actress in the world.

"Why couldn't I see it? Gurnarde knew the moment she saw you that you weren't faking, you were the real thing and and—

"—and _you_... you always knew, didn't you?" Mar turned and said accusingly to Law. "All this while... you let us think that you were in on helping find my mom but you were really using me to get close to her because you knew she was Madelyn. From the very beginning, you already knew, didn't you?"

"I suspected," corrected Law. "The moment I saw you on Sabaody I was convinced there had to be some connection between you and Madelyn. Didn't you ever stop and wonder why you just so happened to look exactly like a complete stranger to the point you would be consistently mistaken for her? Did you honestly think it could just be mere coincidence?"

"Well, yeah, actually. I just presumed it was kinda common for stuff like that to happen in this world," Mar admitted truthfully, thinking of Kuina/Tashigi, and Duval/Sanji's wanted poster.

Law simply gave her the kind of look one would give someone whom they suspected had been dropped on their head as a child.

"No, Mar. Such things are not impossible but they are not commonplace either!" he said with a kind of exasperated patience. "And I don't believe in coincidence. It was far more likely you were related to Madelyn, even if you didn't know it. As it turns out, I was right. You are a direct throwback to your mother, in looks, at least."

Then a horrific thought occurred to Mar. "Wait, if you and Madelyn were involved, that means..."

Mar did a quick mental calculation and much to her relief, was able to reassure herself that thanks to a gap of several years, she could not possibly be the biological daughter of Trafalgar Law.

"Never mind," she finished quickly.

Law however, appeared to have guessed what she was thinking.

"Absolutely not," he said flatly. "You're definitely his." He jerked his thumb at Mr. Suesse for emphasis.

Meanwhile, throughout the entire narrative and ensuing exchange, Mr. Suesse had been staring at the three of them, the same look of shock and utter betrayal still on his face.

"Did you get all that, Suesse?"

"Yeah..." the beleaguered man exhaled slowly before continuing curtly. "You're my wife's ex."

"I can see you focused on the important details."

"Well, you could have at least mentioned this fact once or twice before springing it on me out of nowhere! All this time we were working together and organising the raid, and not a single word... You're as bad as she is!"

"Garreth..."

Garreth Suesse turned his attention back to his wife. "I wasn't that dense, Blake. I always knew you were keeping something big about your past secret. I just figured, since we were married and all, you'd get around to telling me in time. Maybe I should have said something, and maybe it did bother me more than I let on when that time never came. I just never figured all this time the word 'Law' you'd mumble about in your sleep wasn't because you were some wanted fugitive or something, but the name of the guy who told you to 'get the hell away from' him."

"Oh you know about that bit, do you? What else did she say about me, pray tell?" Law's eyes glinted dangerously.

"It was an off-hand comment from twenty years ago. He doesn't know anything else. I never told him," Madelyn interrupted. "I never told _anyone_. You were right, I was ashamed of my past. I wanted to leave it all behind and start afresh.

"But no matter how you try, some memories just don't go away so easily. The more you try to forget, the more you keep thinking about why you want to forget. There could never truly be a happily ever after that way."

"Oh, how sad for you, the poor misunderstood Tenryuubito. Such a _difficult_ life you must have had." Law voice was dripping with sarcasm.

At this crack, something seemed to snap in Madelyn.

"Would you have done any better if you had been in my place?" she retorted bitterly, her eyes flashing. "I grew up in this screwed-up hellhole of a gilded-cage! From the day I was born to the day I ran away, I was constantly being told I was perfect just the way I was and no one had the right to criticise me or anything I did. I was Tenryuubito! I was special! Everyone else was trash! We formed the world government, we owned the world and therefore we had the right to do anything we wanted!

"Over and over and over... nothing but people who would tell me what they thought I wanted to hear. Every single time there was anyone in my life who could have set me right, they were made out to be wrong, punished, humiliated, and destroyed in front of me."

A tear trickled down Madelyn's cheek as she said this. Anyone else might have dismissed it as crocodile tears, but Mar, who had read Magda's diary, wondered if the tear was for her old bodyguard Cree.

"How could a child, any child, have a chance of growing up right in that kind of environment? Tell me, Law: if you had been the one who was born a Tenryuubito, do you think you would have turned out any better?"

There was a ringing silence. Law took a moment to consider the question before answering.

"It's impossible to say what might have happened, but I will admit it the odds would have been against it," he said grudgingly. "All that said, that doesn't change what you did do in the end, Madelyn."

"I was sixteen then. I didn't know any better. I've reformed since. I know I've made mistakes, but I've learnt from them—"

"—mistakes?!" It was Law's turn to snap now. "_Mistakes_? The world doesn't exist as a testing ground for your mistakes so you could learn how to be a halfway-decent human being, Madelyn! _Straw-Hat Luffy! Bepo! Jean Bart! Penguin..._" Law then proceeded to name every single Heart and Straw-Hat pirate, dragging out every single syllable of every single name. "...they weren't '_mistakes_'! Those were real lives, Madelyn. They were people! And because of your actions: _They. Are. All. Dead!_"

"I know," Madelyn said softly. "I still see them in my nightmares."

Law was unmoved. "Remorse? That's very nice and all, but you don't get a free pass just because of that. The fact remains you made a royal mess of this world and then ran away from the consequences. While you were away having your new life in that other world, everyone else here suffered for twenty years!"

Madelyn hung her head. "I didn't know just how much until I came back. I am so sorry."

"If weak apologies are all you have, Madelyn, you can keep them and stop wasting my time."

"They're not enough, I know. But I didn't tell you all that for your sake, Law." Madelyn turned and gestured at Mr Suesse and Mar. "It was for them.

"I said all I did just now because I wanted them to understand why I did the things they say I did. I know what you came here for. That's why I want them to understand what's going to happen next and why your vengeance is well-deserved, and why they shouldn't think of doing anything stupid like try to stop you or avenge me."

"Blake!"

Madelyn continued speaking, ignoring Mr. Suesse's protest. "One thing I will beg of you, Law: my child and husband are innocent in all of this. Please, confine your vengeance to me alone, and let them go."

Mar's breath caught in her throat as she realised Madelyn— no, her mother, was bartering for their safety with scant regard for her own life. And it was at this point when Mar finally felt a twinge of guilt at her earlier treatment and rejection of the woman. For all her faults and horrific deeds, it could not be denied Madelyn still knew how to be a mother.

"In return, you can take your vengeance on me as you wish— how you wish. I won't resist or try to escape. That is all I ask of you. Please, Law... my life alone will be enough, won't it?"

But if Madelyn had hoped to pacify him in that manner, she failed. Law's response was a single, monosyllabic word:

"_No_."

* * *

**End of Chapter 31**

* * *

**Footnotes:**

**[1] A worthy friend is a precious treasure and a worthy foe the next best thing*= This line paraphrased from the character Emeth from C.S. Lewis' '_The Last Battle_', **

* * *

_**A/N: Sorry for the long time it took to write this chapter. I fell sick for about four weeks running, which kind of dampened my focus on writing. On the mend now, so hopefully I'll be up to speed for next chapter. Thanks so much for all your wonderful reviews and words of encouragement :) To those of you who reviewed signed in and I haven't replied to your reviews yet, I beg your patience. I still owe you guys PMs, but I figure you would prefer getting the next chapter faster over a PM from me :)**_

_**As usual, apologies for all mistakes you may see, tried best to proofread but head not co-operating. Feel free to point my errors out so I can fix. **_

* * *

_**Q and A:**_

* * *

**QUESTION 10/9/12 . chapter 30**

So I had started doodling your characters (Mar, Disinfector, Walker, etc.) a yearish ago when I first started the story and been slowly expanding and developing them since. They look seriously different than the ones that you drew. Would you mind me continuing and eventually uploading it in DA?

_**A: I would seriously love to see what you came up with :) Alternate versions are always fun. Do send me a message when you're ready, I'll be sure to link it up in my profile page.**_

* * *

**Dawn of Destruction 10/11/12 . chapter 30**

I do not need to mention your ability to make me very, very sad. You can look on TvTropes for that. The tear-jerker section is nearly half of your YMMV page for this fiction and that it barely even covers the exact emotions for all of the people on the 'dead' list. RIP, everyone.

_**A: I have to admit, I went to have a look at the YMMV tropes page after you mentioned it. In retrospect, I am slightly disturbed now about how long that list is despite the fact that the list itself, like you said, quite incomplete. Whoa, the tropers are going to have a field day updating that section when I finish this fic.**_

* * *

**Mikan 9/27/12 . chapter 30**  
I think Gurnarde is my favourite original character. My favourite original one would naturally be the Disinfector, even if he changed so much due to dreaded Madelyn that he's also practically your own character by now. (and that was not meant to be insult!)

_**A: You know, as canon characters go, Law wasn't one of my favourites, but after writing this fic I have to say I gained an appreciation for the Post-Apocalyptic version of him. I may be biased, though.**_

* * *

_**Happy Reader 9/11/12 . chapter 30**_  
...Walker and Gurnarde. I always pictured her as a sort of lone warrior who had nothing left to live for except revenge and her brother, so her end is bittersweet because she died having fulfilled her goal but never got a chance to find another purpose. And she was sheer awesomeness and reminded me of a female/mermaid Chuck Norris. And Walker was oddly sweet, like a deadly, giant puppydog with gills.

_**A: That's a pretty accurate assessment of Gurnarde, actually. With Walker gone and Fukaboshi avenged, she really didn't have much left to live for. Also, "female/mermaid Chuck Norris" and "a deadly, giant puppydog with gills" may be my new favourite descriptions of Gurnarde and Walker ever! XD**_


	32. Last Wish

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!**

A Deconstruction, in which one can foresee the dark ahead.

* * *

**Chapter 32: Last Wish**

* * *

"No?" Madelyn's voice was wavering. "Wh-what do you mean... 'No'?"

"No deal, Madelyn," Law repeated. "What makes you think something as insignificant as just taking your worthless life would be enough to make up for what you've done?"

Hanging her head in guilt, Madelyn pleaded. "No. Not my family. They're everything to me... I can't lose them."

Law did not smile. "I _know_."

* * *

_He worked alone in the dim light, surrounded by the smell of chemicals and the hum of his laboratory equipment. The boards on the walls were covered in paper cuttings and detailed charts. I_ _n the place of honour was a wanted poster of a woman with a bounty value of 666 million. A single scalpel protruded from where her forehead was in the picture. Marks on the paper showed it was not the first time the picture had been viciously defaced._

_"...orders just came in..." crackled the black den-den he wore on his wrist. "Squall wants a raid on Sabaody, no time to lose..."_

_Trafalgar Law looked up, shifting his attention from his work to the intercepted communication._

_Had they located him at last? _ _No, that was impossible. He'd been monitoring the New Heart Pirates' movements. If he'd slipped up and blown his cover... he'd know._

_"Now what are you up to, Squall?" he murmured to himself._

_"...our targets are the slave-shops. He says it is the command of ... she desires to locate a slave with the following description..."_

_He stiffened a little. Some of the words had been drowned by static, but there could be only one person whom they spoke of in that reverent tone._

_"...absolutely important to her that we find them..."_

_The work Law had previously been engrossed in, was promptly put aside._

_"Important target in Sabaody, huh?"_

_He walked to the window and opened the shutters. The view through the thick glass was unusual: many submerged roots of giant mangrove trees reached vertically towards the surface of the water as fish swam past. The gaps between the massive pillars let the watered-down sunlight filter through the panes and into the lab, filling the gloomy room with greenish-blue light._

_Now that there was sufficient illumination in the room, he reached for his 'Disinfector' hazard suit and began the arduous process of putting it on. "In that case, if it is her, she'll definitely mind me getting to it first."_

_A cold smile found its way to his lips._

_"And I'm much closer."_

* * *

Mar shivered. Despite her earlier reservations, she'd come to think of Law as an ally, and his sudden shift in manner and allegiance scared her.

_Surely he wouldn't...? _But she was aware that he had been named the Surgeon of Death for a reason, and had been well-known for his cruelty. He _would_.

"Are you going to kill us all, Law?" she asked softly, unable to keep the fear out of her voice.

Law turned and met Mar's gaze. In his eyes she saw the terrible, haunted, dead look again.

He didn't answer her question.

* * *

_The first time he'd seen her bumbling around Sabaody, he'd nearly lost control. Fortunately the oblivious girl hadn't even noticed him, He had plenty of time to observe her and come to the obvious conclusion:_

_She was not Madelyn._

_It was maddening, because the girl looked so much like Her that he could feel the scar on his chest start throbbing. But she was not._

_Anyone else might have said that she looked 'exactly' like Her, but Law, who had a more detailed recollection of what Madelyn looked like, could see the subtle differences in the two. The differences were minute— but to him, they were unmistakable. The slight displacement of certain features, certain angles where she looked just that little bit wrong... Add to that, _ _this other girl's mannerisms did not match what he knew of Her; she slouched and cringed and acted like a rabbit about to bolt at the slightest sign of danger. The real Madelyn strutted around like the world belonged to her._

_He scowled. If she was not Madelyn, then who was this little doppelganger? She even had The Straw-Hat on her. He recognised it for what it was, of course. After all, he'd held it in his hands after the Whitebeard War, and again when they'd harboured in Kuja Island afterwards. Almost a lifetime ago._

_Kuja Island was now nothing but a ruined rock in the middle of the Calm Belt, and everyone who had ever set foot there was by now long gone. But Law still remembered the Hat, and there was no mistake that the one she had was not a replica. This was the real thing._

_How had she gotten it? _ _Perhaps an imposter who got lucky?_

_No, when he talked to her (and secretly tested her) she did not react in any way he'd expected a wannabe to act. This girl was so __clueless and _out-of-place it was painful to watch.

_He was still pondering what to do with her when the girl abruptly bolted and chased after a passing bon-chari. He didn't hurry after her. Girl was unfit and weak, and sure enough, with her pathetic stamina and periodic stops, he could shadow her just by brisk walking. He observed her harried journey to the slave shop and back to her boat, and then back to the shop again._

_Law thanked his fortune for her obliviousness in making his task so easy, then shook his head when it promptly got her and the slave she had liberated from the shop caught by the Marines. He _ _briefly considered interfering with the arrest, but deferred the decision when he saw that the Marines were going to take them alive. ____Law was amused to note that Captain Marrow, the idiotic HQ Marine captain of the district, seemed to think that he had caught the real Madelyn. Damn fool had more bones than brains._

_What was_ _ more pressing now was the foreknowledge that Squall and his fleet were almost at Sabaody and things would get very ugly very soon. Law__ didn't believe in coincidences. Squall on the move, searching for a slave, and now a very oblivious straw-hatted Not-Madelyn running around doing the same thing? Definitely related._ While it would be safest to return to his fortified hideout first to escape detection, by doing so he would forfeit finding out what was so important about Not-Madelyn, this very unremarkable-looking slave, and snatching them out from under this hated nemeses' noses. He wasn't about to waste that opportunity, so he made up his mind.

___As it was t_he marines were too full of themselves thinking they'd captured the Pirate Queen to notice he had followed them back to base. He tailed them all the way inside the front door and casually strolled up to the main desk, and told them he wanted to surrender. The looks on their faces were priceless. In fact, the one who had looked up the value of his Disinfector persona bounty looked about to wet himself when he saw the long trail of zeros below his second name.

_He was gingerly ushered into the lockup by the same marine, who was too nervous to even search him properly or get him out of his suit. Dropping hints about how it was containment for a horribly infectious disease he was a carrier for certainly helped._

_In the lock-up, he settled down to wait for Not-Madelyn and slave to finish being interrogated. His cellmates were almost universally annoying, perhaps with the exception of the fishman in the corner, mainly because said fishman wasn't doing anything other than breathing very quietly._

_Fishfolk were so rare now he wondered what this one was doing in the custody of the Marines. But before he had time to indulge in his curiosity, the door opened and just as planned, Not-Madelyn and slave appeared. The two objects of his interest were frog-marched in and put into the cells next to him._

_Time to get serious. Squall would be here soon, but neither the green-haired fop nor the witch were going to find what they sought in Sabaody. He, Trafalgar Law, would make sure of it._

* * *

"Kill us all?" Mr. Suesse positioned himself protectively in front of Mar as he said this. "After all this time and after what we've been through together? He can't be serious!"

Still, Law did did not answer.

* * *

_Law told himself the grief was because he'd failed the Sunny, an old friend. Not because he'd let the crew walk into a trap when he should have known better._

_This new crew wasn't anything like his old one. They had formed from an alliance of convenience. They were supposed to be just tools to him. Trump cards to be used and discarded in the game he had been playing for twenty years. No need to be too upset over losing a few._

_A wave washed over his face, and he sputtered and choked. But his body was still rendered powerless thanks to the ocean's grasp, and he was as about as useful as flotsam. Worse, actually. Flotsam could at least float._

_"Hang on." Suesse adjusted his grip so Law's face was just a little bit more out of the water. The man (who thankfully was a decent swimmer) was the only thing keeping him from sinking into the depths after the Sunny. "I've still got you."_

_He didn't say much else, but Law could tell the other man was getting tired and they were running out of time._

_The worst thing about being a devil-fruit user was being caught in this exact situation. Being helpless and dependent on someone he didn't want to be indebted to. Of all the worst ways to die..._

_Just as it seemed Suesse's stamina was about to give out, he suddenly gave a yell of alarm. A giant sea-beast had surfaced beneath the both of them and was bearing them out of the water._

_Law was about to say something about the irony of surviving the Marine cannonade only to be sea-beast food, but the creature didn't seem intent on eating them. In fact it looked rather familiar... hadn't they stared at that same beast's back in the days before they got to Hawker Island?_

_As if in response, there was a loud splash, followed by a familiar rumble: "Branchy is finding lost hunams... Good Branchy!"_

_Now that he was out of the water, the feeling was beginning to return to his limbs. Law managed to sit up and was greeted by the sight of the fishman Walker standing over him, mermaid sister slung over his shoulder._

_"Walker?" Suesse was already scrambling to his feet. The back of the slimy sea-beast did not make for good footing and he soon sat down again. "Damn, it's good to see you guys!"_

_"Brother, set me down..." grumbled Gurnarde, who looked rather embarrassed at having to be carried. She looked rather singed too, but that didn't seem to be bothering her as much as her ignominious position._

_**"Does the Sand-Dragon require medical assistance?"** Law couldn't help snarking at the unaccustomed sight of the much-feared 'Sand-Dragon' being carried around like a damsel-in-distress. A picture of this would have been worth a lot in blackmail.  
_

_"Quite unnecessary," Gurnarde replied primly as __Walker put her down. _The doctor noticed that she didn't seem so steady on her feet, however.

_"What happened?"_

_"We had a close encounter with some homing mines— traps set by the Marines. I was required to draw them away on a merry chase until they detonated. I... did not quite manage to outswim the blast wave in time and had the wind knocked out of me. By sheer luck that was all that happened. Walker remained unscathed, and thus was able to come to my aid._

_"The fish told us what happened to the ship. Where is the Captain?"_

_Law's smirk died at the reminder of the bad news. He fared better on this than Suesse at least. Now that they were no longer faced with imminent drowning, the man did not handle the idea of his daughter being taken away again very well and became a bit of a nervous wreck.  
_

_He was surprised at how distraught the fishfolk seemed to be at the news. It was unfortunate they had lost Mar, of course; her devil-fruit had been one of his bigger trump cards. But when had those two started to genuinely care about the girl?_

_He told himself he didn't._

_He owed Suesse and his daughter nothing. They just happened to be useful in his long-term plans, he assured himself. That was all._

_He'd tried not to think of the fact that Suesse had undoubtedly saved his life. Or of Mar's panicked screams while searching for them— that __damned girl was getting too attached_. Anyway, the number of times he'd saved their lives far outweighed the meagre few times they'd returned the favour.

_It didn't mean anything. It was not as though they were nakama or anything like that._

_That was what he kept telling himself, at least._

* * *

For seemingly ages, the four humans stood at a standoff.

"So this is how it is? You want your revenge, so you saved them for last, and then you'll kill them in front of me?" An aura was beginning to form around Madelyn as she ranted at Law. It was a strange rainbowy shimmer, with what looked almost like wings of light framing her back. "Were you going to make me watch?"

"I'll admit, the thought had occurred to me before. I certainly had several chances to."

"No! If it was just me, you'd be in the right. But not my family, Law. They never did anything wrong to you. I am sorry for what I did, but if it comes down to it, I will fight you to protect them. Do you hear me?" Madelyn was almost hysterical with fear.

Law tensed. "Presumptuous as ever. Don't threaten me, witch, I—"

He never finished the sentence, because at that moment, he had to defend himself as a multi-coloured being of light charged him. It was Madelyn, in her full zoan form, now looking distinctly fae-like and surprisingly frightening.

Mar realised with a jolt that whatever else you could say about Madelyn the Pirate Queen, she had in fact, not earned her bounty solely by being _charming. _

All hell broke loose as the two combatants disappeared into a demesne of light. Law's blue Room and Madelyn's rainbow trail made it hard to figure out what was going on. Mar had a vague impression that Madelyn's desperate charge had missed its target; Law had teleported himself out of range. Madelyn, instead of charging at him again, drew something out of her pocket and pointed it at him.

"Mar, get down!" Mar didn't have time to see what exactly it was that Madelyn did next. Her father had chosen that moment to push her to the ground and throw himself protectively over her, obscuring her view of the fight.

It was only when the sounds of gunshots filled the air did Mar realise the thing Madelyn had pulled out was St. Magnus' gun, the very same one she had shot Drake with. She could hear Law's voice saying something, then bullets ricocheting and zinging past them as the vicious battle continued. There was screaming, and then at one point her father was yelling for Blake-Madelyn to stop shooting.

Surprisingly, she did, and there was deathly silence.

"You okay, kiddo?" he asked shakily.

"Yeah, Dad."

"Oh good."

He gingerly got off her, which allowed Mar to see what was going on.

Law was standing in the middle of his Room, hands extended. This was obviously old stuff to him; he had used his devil-fruit powers to redirect the bullets and seemed unharmed. But he didn't seem intent on retaliating. In fact, he was looking in their direction with the strangest expression she had ever seen on his face.

Madelyn too, seemed to have lost her will to fight. Her aura had faded, and she had let the gun drop to the floor, her eyes fixed in horror at her father and herself.

"...what have I done?"

Mar didn't understand why her mother had said that at first, but then she turned back to see what they were all looking at. And then she felt like she had been kicked in the stomach.

"Dad?"

He tried to smile back at her, but all Mar could focus on was the dark, rapidly spreading stain on his shirt.

_No, this could not be happening,_ Mar thought in horror. Except that it was, and it made sense in the most horrible way possible. Madelyn had been shooting wildly, Law had then redirected the bullets, and they were all in a confined space where the redirected bullets had nowhere to go. It was inevitable some of them would ricochet off the walls and hit something else. Or in this case, _someone_ else.

"No. No no no!" Her mother was stumbling towards them, her voice breaking.

"It doesn't seem to be stopping." Her father was strangely calm, almost detached from the whole situation, as he tried to press down on where the blood seemed to be seeping out from. He was growing paler with every moment.

Madelyn was sobbing uncontrollably as she caught him just as he slumped against the wall. "Garreth, I didn't mean to... please... don't..."

Mr. Garreth Suesse did not answer as he sunk to the floor. His eyes were already losing focus.

* * *

_The sobbing girl stumbled wearily and aimlessly upon the dark country road. She didn't care where the road led to or what the dashed lines on its surface meant. All Madelyn knew was her life was over._

**_"...Do you want really want people to see you for what you are? Well... I can see who you are inside. And it's uglier than I could ever imagine..."_**

_She could still see his face, the look of contempt in his grey eyes as he died hating her. And she had loved him so much..._

**_"...I WISH YOU WOULD GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!"_**

_...but it had all been a lie. A charade. An empty fantasy. He had never truly loved her. She had just made him pretend to with her devil-fruit powers._

_In the distance, two pin-pricks of light appeared around a bend in the road. It was a rumbling dark shape with the aforementioned two lights perched in front of it, almost like eyes. Madelyn looked up listlessly as the two light-eyes got closer and closer, but did not move from her position in the middle of the road._

_The air was filled with screeching and the smell of burning rubber as the approaching shape drew closer and slewed violently. It skidded to a halt a couple of feet away from her._

_"Are you out of your mind?" came an angry yell from inside the vehicle (for she could see now it was some sort of vehicle, a little like the bon-charis one saw in Sabaody, except more squarish and made mostly out of steel). The man who was seated in the carriage of the vehicle was currently asking her in some very impolite terms what she thought she was doing standing in the middle of the road._

_Madelyn didn't answer, but silently accepted the barrage of angry words. She'd killed Luffy, and helped Squall kill Law. What was the current verbal vitriol compared to that?_

_"...you're not a ghost, are you?"_

_With a jolt the girl realised that she had been wordlessly staring at the driver of the square vehicle for a while now. The man seemed to have calmed down, and he had ceased his angry shouting at her. In fact, he was now regarding her rather uneasily._

_"No," she managed to mumble._

_The man heaved a sigh of relief. "With that get-up, I thought... never mind. As I was er... saying, what are you doing standing in the middle of the road and in the dark like that? I damn near ran you over!"_

_"I... I don't know," she said as she wiped her teary eyes._

_The man stared at her. "Are you OK?"_

_That at least, was a question she could truthfully answer._

_"No."_

_The man had stopped looking angry and was now looking at her in a manner she was not used to. It took her a moment to recognise what it was: Pity. He was looking at her with that same look her old bodyguard Cree had when she had asked about dreams._

_"What happened to you?_

_"I... he... it's my fault..." she tried to speak, but the words choked in her throat. She had wanted to explain about what she had done, how she'd killed the man she loved, but all that came out was: "He's gone."_

_"Gone?"_

_She tried to explain, but even to her own ears what she spoke sounded like gibberish. Predictably, the man didn't seem to understand a word she was saying, and simply shook his head before leaning over and opening the passenger seat door._

_"You know what? It doesn't matter. It's not safe for you to be wandering out here in the dark alone like this. Get in, I'll give you a ride to the nearest phonebooth or police station, whichever you need."_

_Madelyn regarded the invitation apprehensively. But she had nowhere to go, and the man seemed nice enough now that he was no longer furious and swearing at her. She nervously slipped into the passenger seat and sat tensely as the vehicle started moving._

_"Costume party?" The man asked after they had driven in silence for a while._

_"Wh-what?"_

_"That's a pirate costume right? A bit early for Halloween, so probably a costume party."_

_"Yes..." was all she managed to say._

_"What happened to your purse?"_

_"I left everything behind."_

_A puzzled silence from the man, then: "Did you get dumped out of a car by your date or something? Because if he did that, that was really low."_

_The man was scowling, though not at her, but at how ungentlemanly he thought her imaginary date must have been._

_"No... I... there was a big fight. And he said he wished I would get the hell away from him. And then I ran and ran and now I don't know where to go or what to do!" She broke down into tears again at this point, which seemed to make the man feel uncomfortable. He handed her a box of tissues and kept driving in silence._

_"Where are we going?" she asked after she had done with her cry._

_"Police station. There's one on the way to where I'm headed. They'll help you there."_

_She wasn't sure what a 'police station' was, but she had the impression it was something like a Marine base and therefore something she wanted to avoid. "D-do I have to?"_

_"Guess not, if you feel this is a bit too personal. You don't have any money or ID on you, so I don't feel quite right leaving you at a payphone. Tell you what, the place I'm going to has a phone and the owner's a good sort. I'm sure she'll let you use it to call your folks for help."_

_"Thank you, that would be nice," she said, even though she knew there was no one she could call. She was alone in this world and she knew it._

_They pulled up in front of what looked like a small restaurant (the man called it a 'bistro'). A middle-aged woman with graying hair was anxiously waiting for them. Well... the man, at least._

_"Thank goodness you're here! I'm so sorry to call you out at this hour but Shukree's gotten mugged, poor boy, and he had a full set of our keys in hand at that time and those bastards took them. Now I don't dare leave the shop! If they know where he worked they could walk in and steal everything any time they wanted!"_

_"Don't worry, changing the locks should solve that problem," the man assured her.  
_

_"You're such a lifesaver. Oh, and who's this? She's pretty!" The older woman gave him a sly wink._

_The man, who only responded to the tease with an awkward shake of his head, produced a toolbox from the baggage compartment of the vehicle._

_"Not what you think, Denise. Found her wandering around lost, I don't suppose you could help her call her folks and get home? I've got to report to work in a few hours after I finish this job."_

_The bistro owner, who seemed to be the matronly type, shook her head._

_"Of course. And you're working after this? But it's the weekend."_

_The man just shrugged and got to work on the locks. The woman sighed. "Come along dear," she said to the girl._

_"Um, sir? Thank you for helping me," Madelyn mumbled to the man just before she led herself be led away._

_The man looked up and flashed her a quick smile. "No worries, kiddo. And it'll be all right. Shit happens, but things will get better in time. You'll see."_

_Madelyn didn't know what to say to that, so she just nodded.  
_

_The woman, 'Denise', smiled kindly at her. "He's always like that. Now, let's go find you that phone."_

* * *

_She hated washing the dishes. Especially when her hands were killing her._

_"Rash. That's not good, Maddy," Shukree, her fellow co-worker at the bistro said as he brought in another load of dishes. "Used to get that a lot. Painful?"_

_"Yes," she said flatly._

_"Sensitive hands. Guess you didn't do much work at your father's house, did you?" Denise teased as she handed her a bottle of lotion. "Which reminds me, I've got your new papers. They're done by the same guy who did Shukree's, so you shouldn't have any trouble._

_"'Bla-ker-ney Hou-Soou'? We call you Blake for short?" Shukree, the lovable busybody he was, was peering over her shoulder._

_"If you want, 'Kree," the newly-nicknamed Blake said gratefully. She couldn't protest about being nicknamed, she'd done the same to him._

_"Something completely different from your old name, eh? Hopefully that means that father of yours won't be tracking you down any time soon," Denise commented._

_Blake nodded. She'd been forced to share a bit more about her true circumstances (at least the running away from her rich and cruel father part) to Denise since the night she had arrived at the bistro and turned out to have no one to call for help. Much to her surprise, the older woman had been most understanding and had offered her a job at the bistro and a place to stay. The menial work hadn't been easy to get used to, but she'd gritted her teeth and sucked it up._

_"I do hope you give up that second job at that nightclub soon. It's too dangerous... Young pretty girl like you..."_

_"But I need the money to pay you back for the backrent and the papers. I just don't want to be a burden to you. I'll be fine."_

_Denise sighed. "Look, Blake, I know what it's like being dumped out on the street on my arse with nothing to my name. Karma would be a bitch if I did the evil landlady act now."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"Before the bistro I owned another restaurant. Was stupid enough to make my boyfriend a partner. Bastard stole my business, bought over my staff, and just reduced me to a face running the business. It sucked. It sucked even more when he got tired of me and kicked me out. That was when I realised that all that time I let him control everything, down to the way I thought and acted..."_

_Denise trailed off, deep in unpleasant memory. "What a bastard. And what a wake up call that was..."_

_"Yeah... a wake up call..." Madelyn agreed distractedly. "And what a horrible monster she— he must have been."_

_She could not look at Denise in the eye for a while after that._

* * *

_It had been almost a year since Blake had come to work at Denise's bistro. Anyone who had known Monkey D. Madelyn would not have recognised the Pirate Queen, such was the magnitude of the changes she had undergone._

_The bistro owner had taken the young girl under her wing, and under the guidance of no-nonsense and brutally honest woman, the bad habits and attitude of the former Tenryuubito never had a chance. Discovering just how little she knew and how often she was wrong had been something of a shock, but Blake was surprised to find that she didn't mind not being perfect, as long as others didn't expect her to be._

_The older woman scolded her mercilessly for her mistakes at work and at home, but Blake always knew beneath the fierce exterior was someone who truly cared for her despite her flaws. So she tried her best, and it seemed to be enough for Denise._

_Overall, the former Tenryuubito/Pirate Queen was happy with her new friends and new life, as humble as it was._

_She was busy serving the last customers during the late shift when another customer showed up. At first she was irritated, since she had been hoping to head home soon, but Denise trusted her to do her job, so she dutifully took his order with a smile. It wasn't until she was bringing out the food to him when she realised just where she had seen him before._

_"By the way, this meal's on the house," she informed the man as she set it down on the table in front of him._

_He had been busy looking through some files he had brought with him, but on hearing her announcement he said automatically: "Oh thank you, but I already explained to Denise I wouldn't eat here if she kept refusing to charge me..."_

_"Well actually, it's not from Denise. It's from me," Blake pressed._

_He looked up at her in surprise, as if truly noticing her for the first time. "Uh, why?"_

_"You don't recognise me, do you?"_

_The man stared at her with a little puzzled frown before breaking into a smile of recognition."You're the pirate girl. Sorry, you did look different with the costume on."_

_"So you do remember me. I'm so glad. I never got to thank you properly for that night."_

_Her rescuer from that night coloured a little. "Oh that. It's nothing. Was the right thing to do. Glad you're doing much better now."_

_They stared at each other awkwardly for a moment._

_"By the way, my name's Blake."_

_The man smiled back at her. He was not her idea of handsome, but when he did smile, she thought he looked rather nice, actually._

_"Nice to meet you, Blake. I'm Garreth, Garreth Suesse."_

* * *

_"...and I feel like the proudest man in the world. It's a beautiful girl, thankfully she looks more like her mother than her father!"_

_"Garreth!" Blake chided her husband, who only grinned cheekily at her before turning back to his brand-new mobile phone (issued to him on the occasion of his promotion at work)._

_"You'll never guess what we named her. Oh wait, she told you beforehand? That woman's just full of secrets, isn't she? But I'm glad you like having a namesake, Denise. Blake insisted on it. She's very thankful."_

_Blake was indeed very thankful, and as she held her newborn child in her arms she couldn't help but think that her daughter was utterly lovely and perfect. Marveling at the baby's tiny, yet perfectly-formed features, she glowed with her undeserved happiness._

_Marie Denise Suesse. 'Marie' after Garreth's late mother, and 'Denise' after the woman who had been as good as one to her. Blake resolved that she was going to give her child the upbringing that spoiled and lonely St. Magda never had. Her daughter wouldn't have the childhood and make the mistakes she had. And nothing, nothing would ever harm her child or family, she would make sure of that._

_"—Dr. Law, I have the bloodtest results."_

_Blake's head jerked up, and she nearly lost her hold on her child. _ _Standing at the door to the maternity ward, talking to the nurse, was a lightly-built doctor. His short dark hair peeped out from under his scrub cap. _ _A chill shot up her spine. Had she heard that right?** Law...? **It was impossible, he was dead. She'd seen him die. And even if he had survived and was after her, he was in a whole other world. How could he have gotten here?_

_The doctor turned around, and Madelyn exhaled in relief. He wore a face mask that hid his features, but his eyes were brown, not grey, and the nametag on his lanyard read: 'Dr. Loh'. _ _Fortunately, Garreth was distracted and did not notice her sudden panic._

_She told herself that she had nothing to fear, and the dark ghosts of The Pirate Queen's past had no place in the life of Blake Hosseau-Suesse._

* * *

"No... Not again! Not again!"

Mar could tell the situation was bad. There was too much blood. Her mother was frantically trying to stop the flow, but nothing was working. This wasn't like the shallow slashes and gashes she'd witnessed Walker or The Disinfector getting, or even the time Admiral Imba had shigan-ned her with that finger poke of his. This time, the blood just kept spreading from that tiny little hole and pooling on the floor and getting everywhere.

Her mother seemed to realise it too, because her pleas for her father to 'stay with her' were rapidly disintegrating into incoherent, panicked, sobs.

To see your parent break down in front of you is a very demoralising thing. Mar had already been subjected to this several times over the course of her adventures, but this was the first time it involved both at the same time. You'll forgive her if I tell you she broke and sank to her knees, trembling.

There was no doubt about it. Her father was bleeding to death in front of her eyes, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Or was there? She heard the familiar tread behind her, and it all fell into place. She whirled around and looked up at a stony-faced Trafalgar Law.

No time to think about whose side he was on. She thrust her sea-stone-banded wrists at him.

"Get them off! My powers can still save my Dad! Law,_ please!"_

He looked down at her with the same strange look on his face.

"Out of the way, Mar."

Without waiting for a response he stepped over her kneeling form and towards where her mother was sobbing over the unresponsive body of her father. His face was pale and eyes shut, and for a moment Mar feared that it was already too late.

Law didn't bother with any niceties, he just stretched out a hand and shoved Madelyn away, sending her tumbling to one side. Then he kneeled down, took a deep breath, and a blue light silhouetted his figure as he activated his devil-fruit powers and got to work.

Both mother and daughter were stunned into silence. Law made no further attempt to communicate with them, instead working on his patient with rapt concentration. It wasn't long before the light faded, and the surgeon turned back around to face them. Strangely enough, he was laughing softly, although there was no trace of smugness in his mirth.

"This," he said wryly between chuckles, "is irony at its finest." Then in response to their unspoken question, he added: "It was close. The bullet pierced an artery. He would have bled out in a matter of minutes but I stopped it and repaired the damage. He won't die just yet."

"Why did you...?" Mar spoke up, sounding dazed.

"I never meant to redirect those bullets towards you two," he told Mar, completely ignoring Madelyn, who still seemed to be at an utter loss for words.

"You weren't really going to kill us all just now, were you?" asked Mar.

"Just leaving things as they were would have been poetic vengeance. Her secret was out, you knew what she really was," Law said contemplatively, throwing Madelyn a nasty look. "Hell, Madelyn, I could have let Suesse bleed out, sent Mar away and left you in here. You'd have the next few days alone with the corpse and to think over what you've done."

Madelyn blanched at the idea of it as Law continued: "But neither of them deserved that, even if _you_ did. So instead I just saved your husband who nearly died by your idiocy. You owe me now."

Madelyn looked up at him, weary and utterly defeated. "What do you want from me, Law?"

"The same thing I wanted twenty years ago."

She stared back at him uncomprehendingly.

"Your power, Madelyn. I want you to use it to..."

_"...make things were exactly the way they were before I met you. Straw-Hat would still be alive. The world would be right as it used to be instead of the crapsack it is now..."_

Madelyn evidently remembered those words from twenty years ago. Her eyes widened. "You want me to turn back time and make the world right?"

"Yes. And don't you dare refuse me this time. That's the only reason you're alive right now. Trust me, there's nothing I would like as much as killing you slowly, except that it wouldn't change anything. Luffy, Bepo... everyone would still be dead. Long-term, everyone loses.

"I didn't survive hell for twenty years just for something as petty as vengeance. I was searching for a way to get what was lost back. You will grant me that damn wish, or else—"

"—_I can't!_ Don't you think that if I could, I would have granted that wish the first time you asked? My powers don't work that way!"

"How do they work, then?" Law asked with a threatening kind of patience.

With a sigh, Madelyn sat down. "My devil fruit allows me to shape-shift into a fae, specifically, a wishing fairy. In addition to being able to charm people, I can read the wishes of anyone, as long as I can see their faces. You suspected as much, didn't you?"

"The suit and helmet weren't for show."

"It worked very well. I couldn't read you at all, and I had no idea who you were."

"Besides the point. I know you also have the ability to make those wishes come true."

"That is true. But it's not that simple. There are limitations. For one, I can only grant the wishes of others and not my own. And while I can grant those wishes however I like and without even needing their consent, I can only ever grant one wish per person.

"And most importantly, those wishes that I grant can only change the way things will happen in the future. I can't change the past. It just goes against the laws of reality, that's— What's so funny?"

Law had broken into triumphant laughter at the last part of her explanation. It was a little unnerving to see him.

"It's fate. There's no way this can be coincidence. But whatever it is, it's perfect. You see, Madelyn, you can't warp reality, but _she_ can."

"Marie?"

"He's right, I can, Mom. I ate the Logic-Logic fruit, it gives me power over logic itself." Then she paused for a moment, understanding Law's intention. "If I change things back to the way they were, Luffy's death and the war would never have happened. The Straw-Hats and the Heart Pirates and all their allies would have never been killed or had to suffer..."

"Exactly."

"But there's a problem, I don't think I have enough logic power left to. I know you told me to store up my power reserves, but I used it to save The Sunny and everyone and even that already took a lot." Mar hated herself at that moment, especially when she realised how much she sounded just like her mother. "You warned me, I know. I just couldn't let you all die... I'm so sorry."

But to her surprise, Law did not throw her apology back into her face like he had done with Madelyn's.

"It's okay if you can't. You won't have to. You just need enough to warp the way Madelyn's devil-fruit powers work. Do you have enough to do that?"

It was then when Mar truly felt the eerie workings of fate at last. "I-I think I do."

"Will you do it?" he asked her quietly.

For the first time, Mar felt a thrill of hope. "Of course! If you get my sea-stone bands off, I can use my devil-fruit. Mom can grant my wish while I use my powers to change how her powers work so that it will affect the past. It'll work, I'll know it! This is what I was meant to do all along!"

She was so excited she even beamed at her mother, momentarily forgiving her now that they had a means to make things right. Her smile faltered when she noticed the expression of guilt on her mother's face.

"What's wrong?"

"I can't grant your wish, Mar. I-I've already granted yours once before."

Mar stared at her mother, wondering if this was some sort of cruel joke, perhaps payback for her harsh words earlier. But no, there was no doubt her mother was being genuine.

"But how? I never made any wishes that were granted..." Mar trailed off, her eyes widening as an almost-forgotten memory resurfaced. No, that wasn't strictly true. She had made _one_...

_"To be free. To live as a pirate, free on the ocean, with only adventure to look forward to,"_ her mother recited a haunting echo of her own words, confirming her suspicions. "Your father and I were having a fight, I don't even remember over what, anymore. There was the family portrait in the hallway, I could see your face and read your wish... I was so upset at that time and my control over my powers slipped."

"No way... you've got to be kidding me! You're telling me that the reason we fell into this world in the first place, the reason why our house is at the bottom of the sea and why all of us nearly got killed was because I made a stupid wish and it got granted?"

"I am so sorry, Mar."

Stinging silence, as Mar seethed at the ludicrously perfect logic of it all. Of course it made sense. Of course houses didn't go falling into different dimensions without some outside force causing it in the first place. Why hadn't she stopped to think about it before?

I might add, that Mar really should have at least suspected something if she had taken a moment to think over this singular coincidence once she'd discovered that Madelyn could make dreams, or wishes, come true. Unfortunately blood ties tend to induce myopia when it comes to this sort of thing. Most people don't expect their 'mothers' to have the 'fairy-god' prefix. But as it was, they now had a very unfortunate complication to Law's plan to fix the world. As Law himself put it:

"You used up my wish by removing yourself from this world, then used up Mar's by coming back. And you can't grant your own wishes. We're short a wish-maker."

"What about mine?" a voice interrupted.

"Dad?" Mar nearly gave herself a neck-sprain swiveling her head around to look at her father. He was still very pale, but his eyes were open and alert.

"Garreth! Oh thank goodness! You're awake!"

"How much did you hear— and understand?" Law added, casually, firmly pushing his patient back down as he tried to sit up.

"Enough to make me question my taste in women," Mr. Suesse joked weakly. Mar did notice that he had reached out and given her mother's hand a little squeeze as he said this, however. "Apparently, I married a fairy. Either that or the drugs you must have given me really screwed around with my head."

Law muttered a series of medical and complicated-sounding terms that mostly ended with '-amine'. "Increases blood pressure, non-hallucinogenic. You heard what you heard."

"So that thing about wishes was true too? Huh." He turned to address her mother. "My wish any good for this? Or did you grant it on something I didn't know about?"

For several long moments Mar saw her mother stare at her father with a look of disbelief in her face. Mar wasn't sure if it was because he was so accepting of the entire situation, or if it was because her mother couldn't decide if he was seriously assuming the worst about the whole wish thing. It took a pointed cough from Law to remind her mother that an answer was still forthcoming.

"I have never used my powers to grant your wish," Madelyn stated, letting go of Mr. Suesse's hand in a way that made Mar feel extremely uncomfortable. "I wanted to make things work between us without relying on them— not that I didn't mess it up anyway— but I wanted you to love me not for my powers or anything else, but just for being me." She stopped speaking at that moment, because her father had put his hand back on hers again.

"Silly woman," Mr. Suesse said firmly. "Why else would I put up with being married to you for seventeen years?"

As you can tell, the ensuing emotional waterworks and reassurances between the couple made standing next to them incredibly awkward for Mar and Law.

"This is all very touching and all," Law cut in, "but let's get back to important matters at hand. Suesse has an unspent wish. We can still fix things, if he's willing to use it."

"Of course. What do I have to wish for?"

Law lowered his head in thought. "You need to wish for some way so that Madelyn never ate the devil-fruit and joined my crew. The War must have never happened."

"Then I grant that wish, with Mar's help," Mrs. Suesse supplemented.

There was just one problem with this solution, however. You, the Clever Reader, probably will have spotted it by now. Mar certainly had.

"Wait! But what about me?"

I think was the point where Mar finally realised that this story wasn't going to be one of those stories where at the end, some loophole or _deus ex machina_ would magically reset everything back to exactly the way it used to be.

No, Mar was realising now that she wasn't going to be able to wake up in her bed in the real world once the adventure had ended and and wonder if it was all a dream. She wouldn't be puzzling her amnesiac parents later with how much she had suddenly matured, thanks to the lessons she learned in her magical adventure. And no one would be none the wiser about how she had been a heroine who had saved an entire other world.

None of these things was going to happen, you see, because to push the Reset Button that would undo every thing that had gone wrong came with Consequences:

"Mom, Dad... if you wish away the last twenty years, then Mom would have never gone to our world and met Dad and... what'll happen to _me_?

There was a pindrop silence from the three adults.

And in its own way, it was a very effective answer.

"I was never meant to be born in the first place, was I?"

"What? No. NO! Marie... no!"

"Mar! Don't say that! We're still your parents, that won't change anything—" Mr. Suesse began, trying to sit up again.

"No! Don't you get it? You're not my parents! Or at least you won't be anymore, because you guys were never meant to be my parents in the first place!"

Mar was growing more and more hysterical by the minute.

"It's so... so... not fair! Everything we've done, everything we've fought for... what Walker and Gurnarde and Drake and _Sunny_ and everyone died for: it was all for nothing! It was all meaningless!"

She sank to her knees, hugging herself in grief.

"No... that's not true. I know making this wish is the only way to save everyone who suffered and died. And I can't go back on my word. I already made a promise to myself that if I got my powers back I was gonna make it so that all those bad things never happened. I'm just being selfish because I know I'm the only one who's gonna be left out...

"But it hurts— it hurts so much and I just can't take thinking about when everything is done, you and Mom will never have met and I'll never have been born and... and no one will even care! You and Mom won't miss me. You won't even _remember_ me, because I never existed in the first place!"

"Marie..."

"I know it's stupid but that's the part that hurts the most of all. I could have taken going out in a heroic sacrifice but this... this isn't even like that! This is me being a... I was just a freak of chance... a by-product of a mistake... _a mistake that's going to be finally corrected_..." Mar finished in a strangled sob.

"No," Law said suddenly.

"Wh-what?"

"That woman made many, many mistakes. But you, Mar, are not one of them."

This was an extraordinary thing for Trafalgar Law to say. In fact, it was something he certainly would have never, ever have said in normal circumstances. But he did say it then, and more besides.

"Even if this wish turns out the way we think it will, and you save this world by changing history and wishing away your own existence, I will not forget. Even if I will have never met you, and if you were never born, I will remember. I _swear_ it, Mar."

What he said made no logical sense, of course. In fact, the cynical reader might denounce this move by Law as masterly (and cruel) manipulation of a very emotionally-compromised teenager.

It is not in my place to comment on whether he meant it or not. All I can say is, whatever his intent, and despite the contradictory indications of a Logic-Logic fruit, it worked. Mar calmed down and swallowed her tears.

And then she gathered herself and nodded.

"Okay."

It was a single word, but it signalled her resolution and sealed her fate.

"Mar! NO!" her father blurted in horror. Then his face darkened as he glared at Law and struggled to sit up. Law appeared unimpressed at his efforts.

"Lie back down, Suesse. You don't have enough blood left in you. Getting worked up will exacerbate your condition."

"_Lie down_? You nearly tricked me into wishing my daughter away! Then you talked her into agreeing to go along with it! And you want me to _lie down_? How could you even plant such anidea into her head?"

"She has made her choice, Suesse. As you made yours."

"What choice!? That wasn't the plan! How can you possibly expect a man to wish his family away into non-existence? What kind of screwed-up-and-over choice is that?"

Law stood there impassively as Mr. Suesse raged at him. When the other man's anger was finally spent, the doctor spoke again. "It's the only choice you have left."

Mr. Suesse responded by saying something that was very rude indeed, and followed up on that with: "There's always another way."

"If you have another idea that can save everyone, I'd love to hear it. No? Didn't think so." Law then redirected his attention to Mar, and placed his hands over hers.

Before her mind could register what he was doing, the cool blue light enveloped her, and there was the odd swish, a strange feeling of being disconnected from her limbs. Then, the sound of of stone striking against stone. In an instant, it all came flooding back: thoughts, ideas, reasonings, and most of all, the feeling that something missing had been restored. Mar gazed downwards at the floor and realised that the reason she no longer felt drained was because the sea-stone bracelets she had been wearing were now lying at her feet.

Her powers were in the process of seeping back, and with it, her logical thought. It was also then when something that should have been apparent to her finally came to her notice.

"Law, you're... dying?"

He looked back at her, his face pale and drained, as though he had been the one walking around with sea-stone on his wrists, and simply said: "Scorpionfish venom affects the heart. Even with the antivenin administered, the damage was already done. I will not have more than a few weeks left."

"I hope you're not expecting sympathy," Mr. Suesse snapped.

"No, but I do expect to be keeping you company."

"What?"

"You're probably going to die soon, Suesse. You're not feeling it so much yet because the drugs bought you time, but you've already lost too much blood. Once they wear off, and unless you get a transfusion, which thanks to our present situation and the lack of a matching blood donor, is highly unlikely, you'll slip into a coma and die."

Dr. Trafalgar Law never did put much effort into his bedside manner. The Suesses certainly would have agreed with that assessment.

"So just keep in mind that even if you decide to not make the wish, you're not saving anyone, not even yourself. The wish is the best solution."

Despite the shock however, Mr. Suesse remained resolute. "I'd rather die. But I'm not trading my daughter's existence for my life."

"But it won't be an existence worth having, will it?" Mar asked quietly. "Now that I know about everything, about all the lives and suffering it cost just for me to have existed in the first place, I can't just go on and forget about it, Dad. I can't. Even if we could get away from here, where would we go? What would we do? We need to make things right."

"Mar, you don't have to do this! It's not your responsibility to save this world. Children shouldn't have to suffer for the sins of their fathers. Or their mothers."

"Actually, Suesse, that's exactly how it happens in this world."

"That's because your goddamn world is screwed up!"

"Your wife contributed."

Mr. Suesse didn't have a retort for that one. Instead, he just crossed his arms and glared. "I'm not making that wish."

"Garreth—" Madelyn pleaded.

"No, Blake. Over my dead body."

Law looked sorely tempted. "Right, we'll just have to wait a few hours then. Or maybe I should go back to see if the mermaid survived so we have someone who can make that wish."

"Fine by me."

But the stalemate was broken by Mar, who instead of speaking, reached out and clasped her father's other hand. She felt him tense, then return the gesture. Mar knew then, that all his irrational stubbornness was because he was deathly afraid of losing her and her mother.

"Dad, you're going to have to let us go."

"Mar," he replied, his voice breaking. "I don't want to."

"I don't want to either, but one way or another, I'm going to have to do that soon, aren't I? Please don't make me watch you die."

In response to her question, Mr. Suesse echoed a very familiar phrase.

"Damn it all."

But despite the contradictory nature of those words, it was as though an unspoken agreement had been passed between them. Mar knew her father had relented, because her mother suddenly gasped at looked at them.

"Garreth! You..."

He simply nodded grimly.

Time slowed down.

Mar felt her heart hammer as it sunk in that the end of her life was rapidly approaching. It was all very well to be brave earlier, but now the words she wanted to say choked in her throat, as she realised anew how stupid she had been before the whole wish accident. All that precious time she had that she could have used to accomplish things, and she had never really tried. All that precious time she could have spent with her family and made friends... why had she wasted it all?

"Dad... Mom, I..."

She stopped, distracted as Law suddenly activated his devil-fruit powers.

"What are you doing?"

"Not what, where. Going to see if Gurnarde survived. You don't need me here for this."

It was an excuse and they all saw through it. Law was trusting them to go through with the wish, and he was being merciful by giving them privacy to say their goodbyes.

And that wasn't the only reason. Mar saw his shaking hands and heavy breathing as he formed his 'Room', and understood. Law wasn't planning to wait a few weeks. This was deliberate; the strain of porting again would ensure this usage of his powers would also be his final one.

"Law, I..." Mrs. Suesse spoke up. She knew it too.

"Goodbye, Madelyn," he replied, not looking at her. "I hold you to your promise. Make sure you grant that wish right.

"No hard feelings, Suesse," he added, looking over at the man in question. "You know, under different circumstances, you would have made a welcome addition to my crew."

The locksmith/security consultant looked startled at the unexpected praise.

"Mar." Law had saved her for last. "Remember, no matter what happens, your name won't be forgotten. _I promise_."

And with that, he was gone. The blue light of his Room winked out of existence, leaving the three Suesses alone.

They spent the last of their time simply talking about things they had never dared to talk about before. Memories, regrets and confessions. It wasn't long before her father started grimacing in pain, and they all knew the drugs were wearing off. There was very little time left.

"Do it now, before I lose my nerve," her father said as he pulled the both of them close for the last time. Her mother was crying.

It was time. Trembling, Mar closed her eyes and gathered all she had of her logic power for one last warping of reality. She felt more than saw the warm shimmer of light as her mother transformed beside her, and prepared for nothingness as her father made the last wish.

* * *

**End of Chapter 32  
**

**of  
**

**__****Marie D. Suesse and the Mystery New Pirate Age!**  


A Deconstruction, in which fairy-tales don't always necessarily have a happy ending,

and which will be concluded in:**  
**

**Chapter 33: If the World is Right**

* * *

_**A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourited, and recommended. The staggering amount of feedback (both positive and negative) I get from you guys keep me honest, and I have to say, **__t**his is the first time any chapter I wrote for this story broke the 10k mark. Congrats to those of you who got your theories validated, and hopefully this chapter answers many of the questions you guys had.  
**_

_****__**And yes, you read the above right, this is the penultimate chapter, and no, I didn't hold anything back, did I?  
**_

_****__**See you for the conclusion! -P  
**_

* * *

_****__**Q and A:**_

_****__**Imma Guest Here 10/21/12 . chapter 31 **_

And I love how Garreth completely blew off everything to come to the conclusion that Law was his wife's ex. Oh, you.

**A: Thanks! I certainly enjoyed writing that line, which was very characteristic of Mr. Suesse. Strangely enough, this seems to have been almost everyone's favourite part of last chapter as well. XD **

* * *

*___In case anyone is wondering about phrases about "foresee the dark ahead" and "fairy-tales don't always have a happy ending" in the story header and footer, the lyrics to the song "Big Girls Don't Cry" might shed some light on the context. _**  
**


	33. If The World Is Right

**Marie D.** **Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!**

A Deconstruction, in which we explore the many scenarios that would occur...

* * *

**Chapter 33: If the World is Right**

* * *

Dinner in the Suesse household had always been a depressing affair. To begin with, there wasn't much of a household, as it only consisted of a single bachelor sitting alone at the kitchen table, eating a meal with his work and laptop propped up in front of him.

Mr. Garreth Stuart Suesse had the reputation of being a rather odd man. People who knew him found him pleasant enough, but distant. Ambitious too. Even at his young age he'd advanced very quickly in his career and did very well for himself. The more malicious gossips in the neighbourhood attributed it to him being married to his work. Others attributed his work to being the reason he hadn't managed to get married.

Privately, Garreth always felt like something was missing in his life, but he never could quite put a finger on what it was, exactly. The well-meaning busybodies always insisted that it was because he needed to get laid/hitched/settled down, and on occasion he had tried to follow their advice, but none of that had ever felt right. Those attempted relationships had been doomed before they even got going.

The other odd thing about Mr. Garreth Suesse was his inexplicable fascination with the subject of piracy. While that interest served him very well in his career (security consultants who were knowledgeable about modern piracy happened to be in hot demand by international shipping companies), those who knew him better knew his real interest was in the very impractical romantic Golden Age, cutlass-toting, eye-patch wearing with parrots-on-shoulders kind of piracy.

The point was made even clearer when Garreth purchased his first house. He'd also bought a large flag: a Jolly Roger, and proudly flew it on the roof the day after he moved in. The neighbours all came to the conclusion that the man was crazy, and nothing enforced that belief more when he developed a habit of sitting on the roof near the flag and staring into the horizon for hours.

To the eccentric Mr. Garreth Suesse, sometimes living felt more like waiting for something that might very well never come.

* * *

St. Magnus was in a foul mood. His new elite bodyguard had run off with his newest acquisition, a rare baby boxfish mermaid. Such an outrage had never been perpetrated in all his years of hiring security personnel.

"Unacceptable!" the Tenryuubito roared at his unfortunate chief custodian. "Find that miserable worm Cree and bring what he stole back! Get an admiral on it if you must— if he gets away with this because of your negligence, I will feed you to the trigger-sharks myself!"

After the unfortunate man fled to carry out his orders, St. Magnus consoled himself by cataloguing his extensive collection. It was all he had in the world. After his first wife, who happened to be another powerful Tenryuubito, left him, he had never bothered with trying to start another family.

Too much of a hassle. What good were children to him, anyway?

* * *

It was a busy night in The Rain Dancer Bar in Hawker Island.

A bar-fight born of boredom had just finished breaking out, but fortunately, the timely entrance of a newcomer to the bar provided a distraction and the conflict was promptly forgotten. Hawker Island was Hawker Island, and a newcomer meant a potential crew to join or a crew member to recruit.

This newcomer however, did not look very much like a typical pirate. He was clad in clothes much more suited for a security guard than a bounty-hunter or a pirate, and had a very scared little girl with an overly long dress clinging to him.

"Hey, no crying kids in here! This is a bar!" one of the patrons called out jeeringly. The newcomer silenced him with a glare. A few others rose to their feet, eager for trouble. They had been the same ones who had started the barfight earlier.

The voice of an old man seated at the bar stopped them cold.

"Don't mess with this guy. I heard he just killed a whole bunch of Tenryuubito guards all by himself. You kids are out of your league."

The troublemakers hesitated. The aura of menace emanating from the man at the bar quickly decided the issue, however. They sat back down.

"Actually, I just drugged them. But thanks," said the newcomer after he had made his way to the bar. "You the coating engineer I contacted?"

"The one and the same. You're lucky, I don't normally hang around Hawker Island. Much prefer Sabaody. But your case interested me. It's not every day you find someone with a stolen Tenryuubito ship and a lost mermaid wanting to travel to Fishman Island."

The newcomer nodded. "I promised I'd get her home. But she's too young to make it on her own. She doesn't even remember the way."

"It's very noble of you, but naive. You'd never make it alone. You're in luck, however. I have an alternative solution to your problem. Care to hear it?"

"All right..." said the newcomer cautiously.

"Sell your stolen ship to Koohtou's Salvage and Repairs to hide your trail. That long-arm shipwright'll probably let you trade-in for a smaller, more inconspicuous, vessel. Then, head for Sabaody and lie low for a while."

"To Sabaody? A place crawling with mermaid-hunting slavers?"

"It'll be fine if you stick with me," assured the old man. Then he turned to the little girl and smiled kindly, his eyes twinkling through his glasses.

"What's your name?"

"Tikki." The little girl looked up at the man with wide eyes.

"Well, Tikki, I'm called Ray-san, and I have a fishman friend called Hatchi, and he sometimes comes to visit me at Sabaody. When he comes, I'm sure he'd let you follow them home. Would you like to come stay with me for a while?"

"Is Cree coming too?" The girl looked to her companion for reassurance.

"Of course I am," 'Cree', said at once. Then he added to the old man: "You're really going out of your way to help us, Ray-san."

'Ray-san' smiled. "Let's just say I have a soft spot for helping young fishfolk who happen to be stranded. One good turn deserves another."

* * *

_**(Excerpt from the journal of Nico Robin, archeologist of the Straw-Hat pirates.)**_

_Tuesday, June 15th,_

_Received a rather intriguing den-den mushi call from the Heart Pirates. Apparently the Dark Doctor himself called us to announce the addition of a new member to his crew._

_I am not sure why he decided to call us about such a random issue, especially since what the captain of the Heart Pirates does with his crew roster is no business of ours. Even more strangely, he also asked after the well-being of Luffy and the rest of the crew. _

_The odd behaviour of Law-san concerns me. In our previous interactions with the man he was suave and aloof, but this time he actually sounded deliriously happy to hear from us._

_I wonder what brought this on?_

_..._

_Perhaps he was intoxicated when he made that call._

* * *

"—I know! Draw that bird guy from Alabasta next! In Guard Point!*

A chorus of giggles and laughter followed shortly after.

Nico Robin looked up from the deck chair, distracted from her journal-writing for the moment. The younger members of the crew (and Brook) were gathered around Usopp. Armed with drawing pad and pencil, he was doing caricatures for them on demand.

"He's just a giant ball of feathers!" Luffy exploded in laughter when the resident artist had finished.

"What next?"

"How about that X-dinosaur dude? Do him in Monster Point!"

Several minutes later, Usopp held up his finished piece for everyone to see. A hush fell upon the deck.

"That's kind of scary-looking, Usopp," Chopper commented, eyes widening.

"It makes my blood run cold, except that I no longer have blood. Yohohoho!"

"I think it's rather cute, Usopp-kun," Robin joined in, lightening the mood.

"I think it's cool too! I wanna ride one!" Luffy's eyes were glinting the same way they did on the subject of 'beams'.

Robin smiled at the absurd mental image that had appeared in her head. "I doubt Drake-san would let you ride him, Luffy. Besides, it is highly unlikely he would have access to one of Chopper's Rumble Balls, much less three of them."

"As if that would happen! I don't give them out to just anyone," declared Chopper seriously.

"Imagine if that really happened though. Would make for a really scary story... He'd probably be bigger than the Sunny!"

Usopp ended up giving the picture of Monster-Drake to Robin at her request. The macabre illustration of the nightmarish monster-form dinosaur was just to her liking, although Nami refused to let her hang it up in their room, citing it would make the Sunny feel too much like (of all things) a haunted ghost ship.

* * *

_**Ryuugu Palace, Fishman Island**_

"Your offence is a serious one," the Minister of the Right said sternly to the young Ammo-Knight before him. "You signed up for the Neptune Army under false pretenses. You deliberately misrepresented yourself to His Majesty."

"Your Grace! I did not lie! I merely—"

"Lying by omission is still lying! When we let those of you from the Fishman District join the Neptune Army, we were being generous, but you have betrayed the King's goodwill. With your ties to Hordy and his group now laid-bare, your motives for joining are now suspect."

"I joined the army long before Hordy's coup!"

_"Mi-Fa-So-La!_ What seems to be the problem, here?"

"Prince Ryuuboshi! Your Majesties!" The Minister jumped to attention as the three princes of the realm entered the room with their escorts in tow. "No need to involve yourselves in such a minor issue, young Princes. It is being taken care of— you, stop that!"

The Ammo-Knight being tried had thrown herself on the ground before the three princes.

"Your Majesties, It was not my intent to deceive anyone! My loyalty is to the Kingdom and the Neptune family, I swear it!"

"That's enough! I apologise for her impertinence, Your Majesties. She is no doubt desperate for a way out of the mess she is in."

"What has she done, exactly?" Manboshi, the youngest prince, asked curiously.

The Minister cleared his throat. "We discovered that this mermaid, whom we counted amongst the ranks of our trusted Ammo-Knights, was hiding her blood-ties to a known traitor all this while!"

"A known traitor?" Prince Fukaboshi asked with a frown, turning to the Minister for more information.

"Yes. You will recall that that traitor Hordy Jones had several officers serving under him? One of the most dangerous amongst them was a certain—"

"I do not acknowledge that irresponsible miscreant as any sire of mine!" the knight protested hotly. "I was born of his blood, it is true, but that is all. My brother and I were as good as orphans... We were practically forsaken in the slums of Fishman District and left to fend for ourselves!"

"You expect us to believe it was a mere coincidence that you just happened to be assigned to guard the very same cells that he and his fellow traitors were imprisoned in?"

"I did not select my own assignments."

"Unacceptable! You should have spoken up and asked to be reassigned to another task, had you been truly loyal!"

"I had already resolved to carry out my duty as a knight of the Neptune Army. I vowed I would not treat him differently from any other prisoner, so it shouldn't have mattered." She crossed her arms defensively.

The Minister of the Right did not look convinced. "Don't lie! You were ashamed and trying to cover up your connection to those criminals!"

The knight looked downcast at this. "I am not proud of whence I came, it is true, but I have not done anything I am personally ashamed of."

"Just a moment, Minister," Fukaboshi interrupted, still frowning. "You have explained the blood connection, but not her crime. Has she been caught attempting to free the prisoners, or done anything that would arouse suspicion of such intentions?"

"No, Your Majesty. Her duplicity was discovered by accident in an unrelated incident."

"Has she been involved in any unsavoury incidents in her past?"

"No, Your Majesty. Before this, her conduct has been exemplary. But so was Hordy's, and they were both from the Fishman District. Is it not suspicious?"

Prince Fukaboshi shook his head.

"Minister, do you remember what killed my mother?"

The Minister froze.

"And do you remember what I spoke of after Hordy's defeat? We started at Zero. What her father happened to do with his life before this should have no bearing on this mermaid."

"M-my Prince!" The knight was looking at the crown prince, tears of hope and astonishment in her eyes.

The Minister was taken aback, but recovered quickly "You are right, Your Majesty, we should not have made so much out of such a trivial misdemeanor."

"It is indeed trivial, Minister." Fukaboshi said sternly, but kindly. Then he turned and extended his hand to the kneeling mermaid.

"It would have been wiser if you had been more forthright, but the sins of your father are not yours to bear. Rise up, Gurnarde, loyal knight of the Neptune Army, and hang your head no longer."

* * *

"Sister! You have returned! How did your hearing fare?"

Walker had been anxiously waiting for Gurnarde outside the entrance to Ryuugu Palace. On spotting the distinctive figure of the mermaid-knight, the young fishman, barely in his teens, had jumped to his feet and rushed forward to greet his older sibling.

"All is well," Gurnarde still sounded dazed. "Prince Fukaboshi intervened on my behalf and cleared my name."

"His Highness Prince Fukaboshi himself did that?"

"Yes." Despite herself, a smile still found its way to her lips at the mention of the prince. "I still cannot believe it! The crown prince of the realm spoke for _me_, a lowly peon of ignoble birth! He even knew my name! It is more that I have ever dreamed, or deserved."

"Fukaboshi-sama is magnanimous and just. He will be a great ruler in time," Walker said appreciatively. "I think I too, will join the army when I come of age."

"He is worthy of pledging our service to," Gurnarde agreed enthusiastically. "That is why I have decided that I will strive to become the greatest warrior the Kingdom has ever known. And when Fukaboshi becomes king, I will devote my life to making sure his reign is a long and glorious one."

"Who knows, maybe one day he will see the need for a strong warrior queen by his side," Walker added snickering, after studying his sister's rapt face.

Gurnarde scowled at her brother and then looked away. "I know not what you are babbling about, Walker."

* * *

"Both of you are hopelessly drunk," the off-duty marine informed his two equally off-duty companions.

"Hina is not intoxicated."

"Yes she is. And so am I."

"Smoker!"

The first marine smirked. "And that's Smoker, honest to a fault. Anyway, it's not as if I'm judging you lot or anything. Just as long as you two don't get carried away and end up with some nasty surprise or other nine months down the road. I'm not playing godfather to any unexpected arrivals."

There was the simultaneous smash of two shattered glasses as both Hina and Smoker dropped their drinks in horror at the very notion.

"Just what are you implying, Stamper?" Smoker growled after he had stopped choking on what was left of his beer.

Captain Stamper, happily oblivious, took another pull of his drink. "Imagine what a terror the kid would be like. He'd have either white or pink hair, keep talking about Justice non-stop, or maybe refer to himself in third person. Probably'd end up as some hot-shot loose-canon marine, too. Heaven help the Marines."

Smoker glared at him in disbelief. "Genetics don't work that way."

Hina's comment was simpler: "Stamper, that isn't going to happen, and you're drunk."

"Nope," Captain Stamper said as he raised his glass and downed its contents. "I'm waaaasted!" Then he crashed into unconsciousness beneath his barstool.

Neither Hina nor Smoker felt inclined to drink much after that.

Just as well, really, since we all know just how disastrous that might have turned out.

* * *

_**Somewhere on the Grand Line...**_

The ship of the Heart Pirates was anchored next to a balmy, tropical island and a joyful party was in full swing. They were celebrating their newest addition to the crew, a member of the fairer sex whom most of them had already fallen head-over-heels in love with.

"Three cheers for our newest nakama," the crew toasted as they raised their frothy mugs of ale. "Three cheers for our brand-new Heart Pirate!"

"She's just so cute!" cooed Penguin.

"So adorable!" agreed Shachi, perfectly in tandem.

A little distance away from the main party, Captain Trafalgar Law and Jean-Bart leaned against the sub's railing and chatted over their drinks.

"So if I'm understanding you correctly, Captain, you want our next recruit to be a locksmith or a—"

"—security consultant, yes. Think about the benefits, Jean-Bart! The Straw-Hats have the Cat-Burglar Nami doing all their safe-cracking and lock-picking for them. We should have someone in that role too, but instead of a burglar, it would be better if we had a real professional..._ a security consultant_."

"Very... progressive-thinking," was Jean-Bart's cautious comment. He reasoned that the Captain was probably still a bit tipsy.

They were interrupted by the approach of the rest of the crew.

"Captain! We need your input! We've been trying to decide on a new name for our new member but we're hung on the decision and we need you to make a call!"

"Call?"

"What name should we give her? Black Destroyer, Onyxiana or Night-Hunter?" asked Bepo as Jean Bart twitched in disapproval.

"I'm picking one of those names for her?" was Law's deadpan reply, looking at the subject of their discussion as they did so. She was ravishingly pretty: glossy black hair, large liquid amber-brown eyes and an impossibly cute little nose. She locked gazes with the captain and mewled.

"Aw... I think Onyxiana likes the Captain!"

"What do you mean Onyxiana? It's Nigh—"

"Oh for... you idiots! None of those names are suitable for a goddamn _kitten_!" snapped Jean-Bart.

The kitten seemed to agree, and shot the two of them a pleading look, as if to say 'Don't let them call me something stupid!'. There was something disconcertingly familiar about that expression...

"Mar?" Law said suddenly.

"What?"

The captain was staring at the little kitten with an odd expression on his face, his brows furrowed in concentration. "Her name is Mar," he said at last.

There was a moment of silence as the pronouncement sunk in.

"Short and sweet, I like it!" Shachi declared. In a chorus of agreements from the rest of the crew, the kitten was carried away to resume with the festivities.

"Where did that name come from?" Jean-Bart asked curiously some time later.

Law shrugged. "Not sure." The Surgeon of Death turned and gazed into the horizon, as cries of "Hurrah for Mar!" carried over from the other end of the sub.

He frowned, as if trying to recall a memory that was not quite there.

"Just felt really important that I should remember it, somehow."

* * *

The pirate flag flapped merrily in the night wind, upon which carried the happy shouts of children busy trick or treating. Garreth Suesse was up on his favorite spot on the roof, looking down at the throngs of kids scampering around the neighbourhood.

Halloween night was one of Garreth's favourite holidays, and every year he decorated his house lavishly with a pirate theme and chests full of chocolate coins, peppermint skulls, and the like. It was a popular destination for the neighbourhood kids.

"Trick or treat!" yelled the latest bunch of extremely excited costumed kids.

"Where has the rum gone?" added another one, flashing a gap-toothed grin at him. "We demand rum and wenches, yer slaverin' landlubber!"

"Ruffi!" rebuked their chaperone, a young woman with a pirate costume. She looked up at Garreth and apologised: "Sorry about that, he's had too much sugar already and he has this thing about pirates and oh—!"

Their gazes had met for a moment.

The moment didn't last, however, because Garreth chose this moment to jump to his feet. Unfortunately he forgot where he was and predictably, lost his balance and tumbled down the roof.

Fortunately, the eaves were low and the ground soft, and he was relatively unharmed if somewhat abashed. The kids found his fall extremely entertaining and expressed their appreciation by howling in laughter. The chaperone however, had been most alarmed and had hurried to help him up.

"Are you all right? Do you need a doctor? Are you hurt anywhere?" she asked anxiously.

"Just my pride," Garreth said ruefully. "Er.. Have we met before? You seem rather familiar..."

The girl blushed a little. "I had that strangest feeling too," she said as she helped him to his feet. "But I'm sure I would have remembered. You see, I'm new to the area; I just moved here after I finished college to help my mom. She's opened a bistro around the corner."

"Oh yeah, Denise's Bistro. I think I helped your mother out with her locks before."

"Oh, so you're that Mr. Suesse, the locks guy! She was going on and on about how you were such a lifesaver. I thought you'd be this middle-aged man and... well I guess I was really off." She paused and blushed. "By the way, I really like your pirate flag."

They stared at each other awkwardly for a moment.

"Er... Thanks. I... ah... and... call me Garreth, please."

"Garreth, huh?"

Garreth was suddenly uncomfortably aware that he had mud on his face and his glasses were askew, and Denise's daughter must be thinking that he was such a nutjob...

But instead of backing away from him, she smiled, leaned over, and plucked out a stray twig that had somehow ended up tangled in his hair.

"Nice to meet you, Garreth. I'm Madelyn."

* * *

So most of you must be wondering how Madelyn ended up in the other world and never existed in the world she should have been born in.

Well, the answer lies in the wish that Suesse made at the very end of his last life. Instead of going for the most obvious wish, which was to reverse and prevent the events that led to Madelyn joining the Heart Pirates, he went a bit further. This, word for word, was what he wished for:

_**"I wish you were all part of my world from the very beginning."**_

Smart man, that Suesse. It was a simple deviation from the most obvious wish, but it fulfilled all the conditions needed for Madelyn and Mar to right the world, and left room for a chance that eventually, he and Madelyn could get together after all.

So yeah, those two ended up together anyway and got married and in time, had a child named Marie Denise Suesse.

Now I can't quite say that this child they had was the same person as the Mar that we've all come to know in the past thirty-odd chapters, because simply put, she wasn't.

If you don't get what I mean, well, it's just like drawing a picture by hand. If the artist loses the original drawing and then redraws the exact same thing, the end result is never quite exactly the same. Those two pictures that the artist drew would be still two completely distinct and different pictures of the same thing, even though the same person drew it with identical sets of materials and tools.

And so it was with this situation. The Mar that we knew was gone for good, because this Mar didn't have to go through the same experiences that shaped the original Mar into who she was in this story.. This Mar that was born in her place was more of what the original Mar might have been like if she hadn't been born to a cross-dimensional Tenryuubito pirate queen with secret fairy powers and heck a lot of issues. But then, this Mar didn't have to get thrown into alternate dimensions and some really weird situations, or have to chase after slavers and pirates, either.

Inexplicably, not all vestiges of the Mar that had once been were gone in this second iteration of Mar. There were some curious things about her that were worthy of note. For one, this Mar turned out to be a rather unusually somber and mature child. In fact, as her father was rather fond of saying: 'she was a bit of an old soul in a young body'.

The other thing curious thing was, even at a young age, this Mar turned out to have an uncanny grasp of logic, which greatly puzzled her teachers at school. Her science teachers were delighted, though, and I'm sure those skills certainly came in handy if she ever had any ambitions of becoming a scientist or doctor.

Oh, and she, like her father, ended up with an inexplicable fascination with the subject of piracy, although her mother attributed that to her father's influence.

Overall, we could say that Mar the Second had a considerably happier, if slightly less fantastical life this time around. So did almost everyone else involved, actually.

That is not to say their lives were perfect, because it never turns out that way. The Suesse family went through many trials and tribulations, fights and arguments, but that is quite normal for most families and people. And despite things being set right to how they should have been in the other world, you already know how the story of the Straw-Hats, the Heart Pirates, and their allies and enemies played out. While certainly better than Madelyn's reality, it wasn't exactly a smooth voyage for them either.

Then again, some might argue that is the whole point of life, living and adventure.

Anyway, the point of my telling you all this isn't to tell you a story about some amazing girl with awesome powers and how she and her family saved a world and then how everyone lived happily ever after that.

The reason I'm telling this story to you all is to fulfill a promise made to Mar, and let you know of her name and deeds so it will not be forgotten how, once, in a reality that no longer exists, _she lived._

* * *

**THE END**

**of**

**Marie D.** **Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!**

* * *

_**A/N: **_I had originally meant to have this last chapter posted together with my planned rewrites for my first few chapters, but unfortunately due to some complications with proofreading and my own schedule, it didn't work out. I didn't want to keep the rest of you hanging for the conclusion, so I've decided that I will revise the first few chapters later at my own pace.

**If you're interested in seeing how it turns out, keep this story on alert. I will post another chapter with an appendix and bonus scenes I couldn't fit in, **including the one explaining where the Logic-Logic fruit came from (Hang on in there, kirby163!) when I do the rewrite. Think of it as the director's cut or something.

* * *

_**Afterword:**_

When I started this fic about two years ago, I'd only meant to write a readable short story with as many Mary Sue cliches as possible. Seeing that this thing currently weighs in at 120k+ words, I think I've failed on the 'short story' front. But I've at least succeeded on cramming in the cliches and I do at least hope this was readable.

Strangely though, in the course of writing this story, I found my own perception of the topic of Mary Sues challenged and changed irrevocably. I used to have a rather jaundiced (and I'm afraid to say it, shallow) view of Sues. You know, the usual 'Sues are unrealistic and hated because they are perfect wish-fulfillment and we should spork/kill all Sues in horrible ways and avoid using Sue traits at all' worldview.

The thing is, what I've come to realise after studying and writing about this topic is, it's not the Sue traits that make the Sue reviled. It's the writing and characterisation. In short, it's not the what. It's the how.

A Sue isn't just a girl with a ridiculously wrong name and rainbow hair and speshul powers whom everyone falls in love with. An OC doesn't avoid being a Sue just because they are not perfect, look ordinary, or have no powers. All these things are superficial symptoms. At the core of it, what makes us despise an OC and call her a Sue is when that character is written badly and unconvincingly, cannot connect with the audience, yet given special attention and treatment that does not make sense and which does not match up with what the reader feels. We can tell it all feels forced, and we resent those false feelings being shoved down our throats.

And that's all there really is to it, IMHO.

To prove my point, well... you've just been reading an entire novel-length story about a 16-year old girl who falls into her favourite fictional world, gets magic powers, gathers a crew of cool characters around her (including a heartthrob canon character), finds out she's actually from the fictional world, secretly half-royalty and then turns out to be the Chosen One who sacrifices herself to save the world. All this sound like horrific Sue traits, but I like to think the way they were presented in this story was what made the difference between Mar being accepted and her being reviled.

Whether you agree with my observations or not, feel free to review and let me know what you thought of the story as a whole.

Anyway, now that we've sort of come to the end of the story, I have to say it feels strange to mark this as 'complete'. Part of me feels a little sad to think that this story will soon be buried in the back pages of FFN. Hopefully, it won't be forgotten, and hopefully people will still be able to stumble upon it through the right filters or maybe through recommendations from LJ or tumblr and the like. I can hope, can't I? :)

Regardless, it's been a great journey of discovery writing this fic, and thank you all so much for choosing to come along with me on it.

* * *

**Credits:**

A special shout out must go to two very notable fanfics that were my inspirations for this fic:

_The Game of the Gods_ by Limyaael

_Mary Sue Must Die _by Amethyst Turtle

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The title of this chapter, _If the World is Right_, comes from the song _Meet You There Someday_ by the band Augustana. This was also my theme song for writing this series, and I think if you choose to hunt it down and listen to the lyrics, you'll probably understand why.

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*The reference to Pell in Guard Point refers to this incomparable DA artpiece by Nire-chan. (nire-chan. deviantart) (/art/OP-Guard-167011386) You're welcome XD

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Special thanks to the wonderful folks over at TV Tropes, especially Valiona, Pezt, and Foomin' Blue for fleshing out the lovely TVTropes entry about this page! I certainly wasn't expecting the thing to be so thorough and thoughtful, and I must confess I do enjoy reading those entries from time to time. Thank you for taking the time to write down all those observations. I do appreciate the effort. You guys rock!

And heartfelt thanks to every reader who reviewed or recommended this fic to others. You guys kept me writing on when I was tired, righted me when I made mistake, and from your feedback I learned so much. Thank you, truly.

Don't forget to check out the illustrations and art pieces for this fic. The links should be in my profile page. While you're at it, check out some of my other fics too. I will be resuming work on _The Supernova Eleven_ and _Though a Bird Can't Fly_ soon. They're a bit different from this fic, but if you like this, you'd probably like them as well.

Also, here are a couple of recommendations for other One Piece Mary-Sue related fics:

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_Kiss Kiss_ by dandy wonderous

_Another Crewmate_ by HeroR

.

Just in case you still don't have enough of Mary Sues ;)

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_**Q and A: (Extra long SBS edition)  
**_

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**Colors of Iris 12/2/12 . chapter 32**

"That woman made many, many mistakes. But you, Mar, are not one of them."

Alright, I'll admit it. This made me melt. No, scratch that, that's much too mild of a description. It made me regress into an amorphous blob of a gelatin-like substance spewing honey-crusted rainbows out of a warm, fuzzy heart. D'aww, Law. That is the most heartwarming thing I've ever heard (seen? read?) a vicious murdering pirate say.

**colordrifter 11/22/12 . chapter 32**

"You know, under different circumstances, you would have made a welcome addition to my crew."

Law, that's probably the highest praise you could've given Mr. Suesse. Now I'll spend the rest of the week thinking up fanfic of Mr. Suesse as a Heart Pirate...

**-|P: These awesome comments really made me laugh. So much that I decided to draw it in a comic. Enjoy!**

**pingteo. Deviantart #/d5oi9to (You can also see the art piece linked in my profile)  
**

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**NotAlwaysRainbowsAndButterfl ys 11/27/12 . chapter 32**

That would strike me as surprisingly evil were it not for how many words were in that last update. How many hours did you spend on this chapter?

Final question though, why doesn't Garreth just wish that his wife had belonged to earth to begin with? It should solve all of the problems (even if there remains a chance that they will never meet).

** Happy Reader 11/23/12 . chapter 32**  
I reckon Mr. Suesse wouldn't have wished to turn back the past without also wishing for Mar and his wife. Wishes don't have to make sense or have limits, after all. And he's simply awesome like that!

**-|P: Good call, guys ;) Oh and on the first question, this chapter took me a lot of time, and a lot of it was pre-written as far back as May. Yeah I write spatially sometimes, and jump forward to key scenes then jump back and build on that.**

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**Mikan 12/5/12 . chapter 32**

You know, when you think about it, Mar's power is not that much of a game breaker. The strength of the fruit is only exceptional in the world Madelyn created as there is so much illogical things she can recharge on. While normal One Piece can be weird and wacky, there is not enough fuel for the fruit to break a world like Madelyn's.

**-|P: Hm, that is a good point. Mar's warping powers would be much less potent in the real world. Her logic would probably come in handy in school though... (adds that in the fic).  
**

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**UniquelyMackenzie 12/4/12 . chapter 32  
**Question: since this fic was first written to explore mary sues and if all the things that happen in those fics can be made plausible (which you did an amazing job of) are you going to have your lovely narrator wrap that up?

**-|P: Yes I am, and if you pay attention to that last bit, I think you may realise something about the narrator too XD**

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**kirby163 11/28/12 . chapter 32  
**I do still wonder... Where did the Strawhat and the Devil Fruit come from?

**-|P: I was going to answer that in this chapter, but I didn't manage to fit it in. I'll put that up in a bonus scene when I do the rewrite. Hang on in there!**

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**Anonymoush 11/24/12 . chapter 32 **

I really hope you will make another fanfiction for the One Piece fandom.

**-|P: I have considered doing a sequel with the Suesses set in the Harry Potter fandom, which would deconstruct Harry Potter fanfic cliches, but I'm not sure if I will have the time. I do have a couple of other One Piece fanfics though. Feel free to check them out in my profile :)**

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**Theralion 11/23/12 . chapter 32  
**...the "Lemony Narrator," which seemed somewhat unnecessary in this chapter, given that we're apparently at the most emotional part of the work. The problem with this- similar to what others have mentioned- is that often, when the narrator is right, it seems redundant and overly obvious, but when the narrator is wrong or people disagree with it (for example, the difficulty of sneaking up on Mar in the Thousand Sunny), it comes off as trying to tell readers what to think. In these situations, it might be more subtle and helpful to have characters make their observations on their own, to illustrate what normal people would think about Mary Sues. In short, perhaps more of a "show, don't tell" approach would have been better.

**-|P: The Lemony Narrator seems to be something of a 'love it or hate it' kind of thing. Ah well... since this was a learning project for me, I wanted to experiment with something new, and definitely learned a lot. Though I have to say, if I were to make use of a Lemony Narrator like that again, I'd probably use it in a different manner. Definitely more subtly.**

**All that said, I do think that in this particular case, the use of "Tell" is actually more suitable than "Show", as this story is in some ways a modern-day version of a dark fairy tale and it is in keeping with the tone of those kind of stories. They weren't particularly subtle about their aesops. If you're familiar with TV Tropes, there's one that goes 'Some Anvils Need to be Dropped'. I think this fic drops whole hailstorm of them.**

**I was pretty sure I did refrain from telling readers what to think in that particular chapter, however,**

**The narrator at the first few chapters though... yeah no excuses, he's heavy handed as hell. I'm probably going to go back and do some major rewrites of the beginning when I'm done.**

* * *

**Sarcasticles 11/22/12 . chapter 32  
**I don't recall this being brought up in story, but where does Oda fit in all of this? I mean, Mar has actually read one piece, so I was wondering if he was a part of anything. I guess it doesn't really matter, I was just kind of curious.

**-|P: I have to admit the Oda angle is a headache, but I'm just going to side-step it and say maybe the entire OP dimension actually exists inside his head *grin***

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**dartya 11/22/12 . chapter 32**

...there is one thing I'd like to ask. It has nothing to do with how the story will end, it is more about the why's and how's. It just fascinates me.  
Did you know how the story would end when you first started? I remember how you said that you didn't think that it would get so serious, but /when/ did you realise exactly what and why you were writing?

**-|P: I had a vague idea when I started that I wanted to do a story about a Mary Sue character ending up in an OP world where everything had gone wrong. The first three chapters were written in a single shot. I think it was at the fourth chapter when I realised that I wanted to give this thing more of a plot and less of a parody. Sometime during the 5th chapter I came up with the idea of Madelyn being the cause of the world screwing up (it was a possibility before, but I made up my mind to go through with it then). It was around the end of the 6th chapter when realised I wanted a take on Mary Sues that was more deep and meaningful, and by the 7th I roughly had the whole plot laid out in my head, including the Madelyn-Mar connection.**

**I didn't think the scope would be so much more longer and complex though. I thought the most this thing would run for was for 10 chapters or so. Yeah, I know I'm rather bad at estimating.**

* * *

**Imma Guest Here 11/22/12 . chapter 32**  
I still hide my face in a pillow every time Garreth and Blake become all touchy-feely. I can image Law wanting to do the same, you know, in that cool, collected way of his.

**-|P: The recent manga chapters really make this so much easier to imagine, doesn't it?**

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**d7jedi 11/22/12 . chapter 32  
**Its sad that this good thing will come to an end, and this story may eventually get buried under other stories and clones, but rest assured, no matter what happens, your name, and this story, won't be forgotten. I promise. I couldn't resist :)

**I have to admit, I wasn't expecting to have my own words quoted back at me. I feel strangely honoured ;)**

**I am sad at the idea of finishing, and saying goodbye to Mar and Mr. Suesse and the Mer-siblings and such, and then at the idea of the story being buried and forgotten. I'd be flattered at the idea of clones though (yay! I'd be a trendsetter then!) but hey, who knows, I'm sure the occasional reader will still stumble into it from time to time :)**

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_** Thank you everyone. And with this, we end the year. Have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! -|P**_


	34. Appendices, Bonuses, and Cut Content

**Marie D. Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age!**  
A Deconstruction, in which things could have been different. But no less disturbing at parts. Just so you know.

* * *

**Bonus Content: The Underwater Submarine Epilogue**

* * *

The Ship That Would Sail Under a Thousand Suns.

That was what they had called it.

It had lain undisturbed on the ocean floor for decades before being recovered. Now, it was destined to go back there again, this time for good.

A ship does not sink straight down. Depending on the underwater currents, even the heavy mass of a sinking ship can be swept away to a different location from where it sunk at the surface.

Perhaps it was fate, but the _Thousand Sunny_ was too, carried by a particularly strong current, and deposited on a sand-bed, near a coral outcrop that if you squinted, could be said to resemble a shark.

A massive moray eel poked her head from her crevice on the reef and regarded it curiously. It was not the first time she had seen a wreck before the ocean turned it into another reef.

A straw-hat, which had been tangled in some of the lines of the wreck, was worked loose by the current, and drifted towards the moray, to settle on the reef that had once been the missing child of the ship.

Home, at last.

* * *

_**Twenty years ago...**_

"They're still on us!" Franky yelled as he desperately fought to guide the _Shark Submerg_e though the storm of depth charges. The water was thundering about them, the sounds of the deadly explosions magnified underwater.

"Divesuits?" Brook suggested.

Franky shook his head. "We're too deep. The water pressure and concussion from those explosions would destroy us. I'll try to get the sub closer to the surface."

The _Shark Submerge _lurched again as a depth charge detonated far too close to the sub. Something blew in the controls, and the little submarine slowed its forward momentum and began sinking.

"We're losing all power!" Franky had taken his hands off the control and was frantically trying to restart the failing systems. Given enough time, he could, but they didn't have the time.

"We're not going to make it, are we?" Usopp's face paled as the sub shuddered again.

Nami bowed her head and clutched the Straw-Hat. Luffy's hat had been left on the Sunny the day their captain had disappeared, and she had been keeping it on her ever since. "Chopper..."

"At least he is safe, and once he saves Law-san he won't be alone," Brook pointed out gently.

All of them nodded. It was cold comfort, but at least it was something.

"_Sunny_. We're so sorry..." Franky bowed his head, thinking of the beloved ship that he had left coated and hidden underwater. He would never be able to go back for her as promised now.

"Nami, are we going to try it?" Usopp asked, eyeing the crate of devil fruits they had swiped during their raid on Vegapunk's lab, as the lights began to dim. Even if they were surrounded by the ocean, there was nothing to lose now, and perhaps in one of these fruits there would still be a power that could still save them all.

Nami nodded and selected one of the devil-fruits. Usopp already had his halfway to his mouth. It was a strange-looking example of the unearthly fruits, one that looked like a swirly chilli pepper.

Then the depth charge hit.

* * *

Carried by the deep-sea current, a straw hat, miraculously undamaged despite what had happened to the vessel it had been in, drifted through the water. Tangled in the lanyard was an uneaten devil fruit.

Perhaps the strange fruit had some sort of inexplicable power, and the unearthly energies it radiated provided it some sort of immunity, but the straw hat and fruit would traverse the ocean unmolested and untouched by the denizens of the deep for decades.

One day, many years later, a large object suddenly appeared and sunk into the ocean in the area where the Hat and fruit happened to be drifting. This briefly changed how the underwater currents flowed, and the Hat was brought to the surface. Against all logic, as though guided by fate, it then drifted on towards a miserable young girl who just happened to be clinging on to flotsam in the middle of the ocean at that very moment.

And the rest, as they say, is Her story.

* * *

**_Phalanx's Notes:_**

_The above bonus scene was supposed to be the opening chapter of the last chapter, I wanted to bookend the scene in the Suesse household, and it just fit better there._

_ I did consider ending the story with this too, but after the narrator had so neatly wrapped things up, it seemed a bit superflous, so here it ends up a bonus instead._

* * *

**Bonus Content 2: Kitty!Mar**

* * *

"Hey you! what are you doing in my cabin?" Captain Trafalgar "Surgeon of Death" Law stood in the doorway of his private quarters and glared at the intruder he found in there. It was the last thing he wante to deal with at the end of a long, trying day.

Mar the kitten froze and looked up at Law with a look that could only be described as 'blankly uncomphrehending'. The pirate captain, who knew better than to fall for the act, rolled his eyes, walked over to the desk where she had been messing around, and picked her up by the scruff of her neck. The kitten was still giving him an 'I'm innocent!' look when he deposited her on the bed, before turning back to tidy the mess she had left.

"Bad cat! You left paw prints all over my papers," Law grumbled beneath his breath. "Stay put and dont start scratching the bedposts, you hear me?"

When he was done with salvaging his work, he quickly discovered that Mar hadn't stayed where he put her, and had stealthily wandered off towards his nightstand. She was sniffing at the small wooden chest that was placed upon it. With alarm, Law realised that he had carelessly left the lid open, and its very valuable contents were currently at risk from the curious cat.

The kitten nearly fell off the nightstand in surprise as the chest suddenly disappeared in a flash of blue light, only to reappear in the captain's hands.

"No devil fruit for you, Mar," Law said sternly to the kitten as he checked the contents: an unidentified red devil fruit that was in the shape of a chilli peppper. It _looked_ untouched.

"You didn't lick it, did you?"

The kitten blinked, then meowed in protest.

"Why are you so obsessed with that thing anyway, Cat?"

Shaking his head, he carefully locked the chest and reached out a hand to pet the kitten as she jumped up onto his lap.

* * *

**Cut Content: Escape From Mariejois**

* * *

**_Phalanx's Notes:_**

_The following is an alternate version of events leading up to the final confrontation. It is much less darker that what I used for the actual story, although it still has its share of unsettling content. _

_This version deviates from the original shortly after Mar, Mrs Suesse, and Red escape from the Kennels. Instead of going back they leave through the original route they planned after getting hold of a den den mushi and managing to communicate with the rescue party. You can detect some remnants of this plot in the original like the bit about Red's key being important. It was meant to be used for the final door before this scene. _

* * *

"There, ahead!"

Sure enough, looming ahead, was a small square of dim blue light. Their footsteps echoed loudly against the stone of the passage. As they neared the opening, they could hear the enticing sound of crashing waves, and smell the salt in the air.

Mar found her second wind, and was able to force her tired feet to keep going. But she still wasn't faster than Red, whose lithe frame was already at the exit and silhouetted against the moonlight. He didn't relax just yet; Mar could see him glance warily about in case of an ambush.

"Their ship is down there," he said as soon as Mar and her mother caught up."

Sure enough, docked near a small beach, was a pirate ship. It wasn't the _Thousand Sunny_, but it was flying a very familiar flag. Mar's searching eyes took in the symbol on the rent jolly roger, and and recognised it at once.

"That's our flag! But it went down with the ship... How did they get it up again? Of course, either Gurnarde or Walker must have done it!"

"I hope that is the case," Red said as he smiled, relaxed a little and greedily breathed in the salty air. "Ah, the ocean. How I've missed it. This is the first time in recent memory I've come to it as a free man."

Mar couldn't help but feel extremely happy herself at witnessing Red's obvious delight at their new-found freedom. It was the least he deserved after so many decades of unspeakable suffering. She was about to say something more when her mother suddenly gave a little shriek.

"Garreth?"

In the distance, running towards them from the direction of the moored pirate ship, was a familiar looking figure.

"Mar! Blake!"

"Garreth!"

Mrs. Suesse had taken off at a run. The next moment, both of Mar's parents had jumped into each other's arms, and in Mar's opinion, proceeded to be thoroughly embarrassing. I should mention that the fact that all this was going on in front of Red probably didn't help either.

"Well, in case anyone cares, I'm here too..." Mar pouted, but at that moment, Red gave her a little nudge.

"It's an adult thing," he said, a bemused grin on his face. "They haven't seen each other for a long time. I'd let them get on with it."

"Well once they're done with that thing they're doing, I guess I ought to introduce you to my Dad," Mar replied, mollified. She was still slightly mortified when Drake extended his hand and ruffled her hair. "Erm... would you prefer the name 'Red' or 'Drake'?"

"I do not wish to be called 'Red' ever again."

"Drake it is, then," Mar said with a smile. "Omigosh, wait till I introduce you to the Disinfector! You two actually know each other from back then, you know? I'm not supposed to tell you who he is but once you meet him I think you'll know who he actually-"

"Mar, I am very grateful to you and Magda for my freedom, but introductions will not be needed. I will not be coming with you after this."

Mar look at him in shock at the announcement. "But there's plenty of space for you to come with us! It's no bother at all. Please come! If you don't, what will my mom say?!"

Drake smiled sadly again. "She already knows that I only meant to go with you as far as the ocean."

"B-but she never mentioned... I thought... why?" Mar had never quite realised how fond she had come to be of Red/Drake, the idea of leaving him alone left a cold dread in her heart.

"Mar, please understand. I cannot go any further with you... not with the tracking device on my implant. It would only lead the Marine pursuit to you and I would not endanger the two of you for anything in the world. It's better that I go my own way."

"B-but... they'll come after you again. What if they capture you again? You'll be alone with no one to help you!"

"Do not worry about me, I have already made plans to ensure it will never happen again." Drake reassured her. Then he turned to her mother, who was finally done with 'greeting' her father."Magda, once they realise I am with you, they will make use of the tracker beacon to find us. I must leave now. I'll do my best to lead them away from you."

"Are you sure about this, Red?" There was a sad look in Mrs. Suesse's eyes.

"It's for the best," he assured her with a salute. "I thank you for my freedom and all you have done for me. Godspeed, and stay safe."

With that he turned and sprinted up the rocky path that led to the cliffs of Mariejois.

"Blake, who was that?" her father asked curiously.

"A fellow slave who was imprisoned with us. His name is Red."

"No," Mar corrected, sadly watching the green-skinned figure disappear into the distance. "His name is Drake- X. Drake, Captain of the Drake Pirates."

* * *

**"So X. Drake was alive all this time and kept as a slave in St. Magnus' mansion. Puppet-controller too? Poor bastard..."** The Disinfector said to Mar as their ship pulled away from Mariejois.

The invasion team had returned to the ship shortly after Drake's departure. Mar's mother had been introduced to the rest of the crew and was already making friends with Walker, who had the been friendliest towards her out of the three. The Disinfector had not said much to her after the initial greeting, while Gurnarde had been rather cautious and stand-offish, but that was normal for Gurnarde. Mar supposed the mermaid just needed time to warm up to new people.

"I still wish he had come with us," Mar sighed as she stretched out her hands so the Disinfector could remove her sea-stone bands. "He's been a caged animal for so long, and now he has to be a hunted one. It's just unfair."

At the moment, the Disinfector managed to remove the bands. The sea-stone bracelets she had been wearing were soon lying at her feet, her strength was seeping back, and with it, her logical thought. In an instant, it all came flooding back to Mar: thoughts, ideas, reasonings, and most of all, the feeling that something missing had been restored.

It was also then when something that should have been apparent to her finally came to her notice.

"We've got to go back!" Mar cried out loud in horror. "I've been an idiot! Turn back! We've got to go back for Drake now!"

"Marie, he made his decision to go his own way. We should respect it." Mrs. Suesse said immediately.

"No! We have to go back! Don't you understand? Drake's planning to kill himself!"

"What?"

Walker, seeing her distress, quickly instructed Branchy to turn and head back. Before long, the ship was rushing back the same way it had fled from, towards the cliffs of Mariejois.

"He said he was going to make sure he'd never be captured again, but if he also said that tracker couldn't be removed..." Mar clenched her fists in anger at herself. "Why didn't I realise it earlier?"

**"Perhaps it would be best to let him choose his own end. To a man who has lost everything and with nothing to live for, death is preferable choice,"** The Disinfector commented thoughtfully, which earned him an angry glare from Mar. He showed no sign of having noticed or cared.

"Look! Up there!" Gurnarde called out, pointing at something high above them.

At the top of one of the cliffs was a familiar green-skinned figure. Drake was sitting at the edge. He had obviously been waiting there and watching the sunrise.

"What is he doing just sitting there in that exposed position? I thought he said he meant to get away..."

Even as Mrs. Suesse spoke, they could see Drake rise to his feet and face the rising sun, arms spread.

_Too late... they were too late._

"No! Stop! Stop!" Mar screamed, but she already knew her voice would never carry that far.

Everything was happening in slow-motion now. Mar could only cry out in horror as the man who had saved her life calmly took a step forwards into the empty air and plummeted down the sheer drop of the Red Line, down towards the rocks and the ocean below that would surely end his life.

There wasn't enough time to try and warp reality. Did she even have enough logic power to bring him back to life if he was killed? Would he ever forgive her if she did that? Mar didn't know.

She never got to find out, because just then, a strange thing happened. A large column of water, majestic and surreal, rose from the ocean to intercept his fall. Mar's mouth fell open as the giant waterspout rushed up, enveloped the man, then slowly subsided down to the sea-level with him in its inhuman grasp.

Mar was confused until she caught sight of the source of the water.

"Walker?!"

The giant fishman was by the side of the ship, his hands flowing in the strange movements of his fishman martial arts and there was no doubt the waterspout was his doing.

"Gurnarde is saying do," was his grunted explanation.

It was also at this point when Mar realised that the mermaid was nowhere to be seen.

They all saw her a split-second later, breaking the surface with a limp figure of the devil-fruit user in her arms.

"Walker, catch!" she called out before tossing the now-human Drake at her brother. Walker deftly caught the hapless man-turned-projectile and gently set him down on deck.

**"Cushioned the impact of the fall with the waterspout, while the mermaid zipped over and fished him out. Impressive,"** commented the Disinfector as he moved forward to administer whatever medical aid that might be required.

As it turned out, it was quite unnecessary. Drake appeared to be unharmed, and was already gasping and crawling to his feet.

"Just what the hell do you think you are doing?" he yelled at Gurnarde as soon as he had the breath to speak. "I never asked you to save me!"

"Nothing personal, human. Captain's orders," Gurnarde replied, smiling rather smugly.

Drake turned and glared at Mar, who shrank a little at the hostility in his gaze. "How dare you?! I already explained why I couldn't come with you. I thought that you would have at least given me the freedom to make my own decisions!"

"It was a stupid decision!" Mar shot back, despite her own fear. "You lied to me! You didn't tell me your solution to not being caught again was jumping off a freaking cliff!"

"Stop being such a sentimental child! You know I have this damn thing on my neck!" he snarled back at her, pointing at the puppet-controller. "It cannot be removed. It'll bring the Marines down on us and they'll slaughter your crew and family. You've put everyone in danger by bringing me here against my will!"

"Red, please!" Mrs Suesse tried to pacify her ally. "Don't do this! After everything we've been through, you can't just give up like that..."

"Magda, do you think I would have chosen that course if I had another choice? They'll track me down. Then they'll find ways to make the puppet-controller work once more. None of you understand what it's like, being turned into a human puppet! I would rather be dead a thousand times over than be a prisoner— a mere plaything of my own body again, do you hear me?! "

Drake was transforming from his human form to his hybrid one even as he said this. The change might have been involuntary because of his highly-stressed state, but it also looked extremely threatening. Everyone immediately tensed up and Mr Suesse started reaching for his gun just in case.

Fortunately, the situation never escalated to violence, as just as things were beginning to look ugly, Drake suddenly gave a cry, stiffened and fell to his knees. The Disinfector had taken the opportunity to sneak behind him with a syringe full of his most potent sedative.

"You! It's you... you bastard!" Mar knew from his tone that Drake had evidently recognised who the Disinfector really was. Fortunately, he never had the chance to anything else, as the sedative had started to kick in. The zoan user slumped to the deck, turning back into his human form as he scrabbled desperately to fight off the effects of the drug. It took another minute before he fully succumbed to unconsciousness and lay still.

"Will he be all right?" Mrs Suesse asked anxiously, and would have rushed to his side if The Disinfector hadn't waved her off.

**"For anyone else it would be a lethal dose, but he can handle it."** The Disinfector said nonchalantly, putting away his massive syringe before kneeling to check the sedated man's vitals. **"Stable. Good."**

Mar noted that her father looked slightly jealous of the concern her mother was showing for Drake. If the situation wasn't so tragic she would have found it quite funny, actually.

**"Fishman Walker, please carry patient to infirmary. Will attend to him after The Disinfector has finished seeing to the Captain."**

Walker wordlessly scooped up the unconscious Drake and headed towards the sick-bay.

"I'll come with you," volunteered Mrs Suesse, still looking worried.

"Me too," Mr Suesse said at once.

Despite herself, Mar snickered. Oh her father was definitely jealous of Drake, all right. She fought very hard to keep a straight face as The Disinfector tossed her old sea-stone bracelets to her father and told him to keep them ready in case Drake turned violent.

**"X. Drake has a point however,"** The Disinfector pointed out, as he bandaged a scrape Mar had received earlier. **"Tracker beacon on his implant will be problematic. He cannot stay with us while it remains active."**

"He wouldn't abandon us back in St Magnus' mansion, and I'm not abandoning him now," Mar replied stubbornly.

Gurnarde, sensing that her presence was not welcome in this discussion, excused herself, saying someone needed to pilot the ship and direct Branchy.

**"We lost the Sunny because that shipwright back at Hawker Island planted a beacon on us. Do you want to risk a repeat of what happened?"**

"There is another way. We remove that controller implant."

Mar could see the Disinfector stiffen as soon he realised what Mar was asking of him.

**"No."** The Disinfector said firmly.

"Yes," Mar persisted. "You can do it, can't you, Disinfector? You've done it before!"

**"I said: no. Is not possible. Tried. Failed!"**

"Law, look! Just because Chopper died doesn't mean it won't work this time. The last time you did that operation it you'd never done anything like that before and it was right after you'd just been stabbed. Of course you wouldn't be at your best! But this time, now that you have experience and all, Drake has a better chance!"

"Drake dying in the operation is the least of our worries. If we fail, there are worse consequences."

"What's the worst that could happen? He wants to die because he can't find any other way out! There's nothing to lose."

The Disinfector was silent for a very long time. Even though she couldn't see his face beneath the visor, Mar could instinctively sense that it had assumed the same haunted look it had back in the infirmary of the Sunny.

**"I told you... I was the one who killed Chopper. I never told you back then that reason was because Chopper was the one who killed the Heart Pirates."**

* * *

**[Chopper Berserker flashback and Berseker explanation scenes here. The content is almost identical to the version that appears in the actual story. ]**

* * *

Mar was silent for a long while. But despite the shock, she obstinately refused to budge.

"Law, the Heart Pirates and Chopper didn't all have to die for nothing. It can still be different this time. We know what to expect because of what happened in the past and we have sea-stone ready. It can work. _Please_!"

**"Application of sea-stone during operation would compromise chances of survival of patient. Non-application would pose too much risk if he goes Berserker—"**

"Walker and I would be pleased to offer our assistance to throw the zoan user overboard again should the need arise. Just say the word!" Gurnarde volunteered cheerily, popping up out of seemingly nowhere.

There was a period of silence as both of them stared at her. "My hearing is excellent and your voices do carry across to the bridge, you know, " she added on seeing their expressions. "Back to the topic, there really is no reason not to try this operation, Disinfector. Veterans like us do not fear the ghosts of our past failures." With that parting shot she disappeared back over the show, presumably to guide Branchy again.

The Disinfector looked after the mermaid as though he wanted to cut her up into a thousand little pieces, but the taunt worked. **"Fine,"** he said shortly. **"Captain, you and your father will assist me in the operation. Everyone else stays out of the room and on alert. Once this operation begins, whatever I say goes, no arguments. Is that clear?"**

Mar decided nodding was probably the most tactful response for this situation.

* * *

"They've have been in there a long time. I hope they are not experiencing complications," Gurnarde remarked casually to Mrs Suesse. The two women were waiting outside the room that had been converted into the Disinfector's operating theatre.

"It's impossible to tell what's that's going on in there. Dr Disinfector seems to have the room sealed down tight."

"Well I suppose he will not be reticent about asking for help if things go amiss. If that poor comrade of yours has to be buried at sea immediately I would like to be the one doing it. Tossing humans around is a very enjoyable activity. He, in particular, is a delight to toss- very solid and durable."

No one could blame Mrs Suesse if she started looking rather uneasily at Gurnarde at this.

It was just as well that the operating room does opened shortly after that. Everyone looked expectantly at the solitary, blood-splattered figure that emerged: The Disinfector.

No words were spoken as the doctor traversed the length of the deck until he reached the railing. Then he opened his hand to reveal in his palm, a bloodstained puppet-controller implant. The lights on it were still blinking, and they continued blinking as still without saying a word, The Disinfector pulled his arm back and hurled it deep into the waves.

Then he heaved a sigh of relief before heading back into the room again, passing a weary but triumphant-looking Mr Suesse who had just emerged.

Gurnarde broke the silence. "It would seem that my services won't be necessary after all."

"Thank goodness, " replied Mrs Suesse before she ran forward to embrace her husband.

* * *

"He's going to be mad at me when he wakes up, isn't he? " Mar asked nervously, as she helped clean up after the operation.

**"It won't have been the first time he was operated on without his consent. Hopefully it will be the last."**

Drake had been laid out on his chest to recover from the surgery. The wound at the back of his neck where the implant had been was concealed under a covering of bandages, and looked much less serious than it was. Mar, who had been through each step of the surgery, knew better.

As a safety precaution The Disinfector had put the sea stone bands on Drake again, so the zoan user was currently back in his human form. Mar couldn't help but notice Drake hadn't aged as much as Law had. Perhaps it was a side effect of Drake's devil fruit, she didn't know, but Mar had been so accustomed to seeing him in his superhuman hybrid state that seeing him lying there, unaccustomedly human and vulnerable, felt wrong.

**"If he continues to be unreasonable once he regains consciousness, it is still not too late to ask the mermaid to toss him overboard. She seems to enjoy it. "**

Mar was about to protest in horror when she realised that The Disinfector was, in fact, making a joke.

"You joked!"

The Disinfector did not reply. He did not deny it, however. Mar could practically sense the smirk underneath his visor.

"Omigosh, you're actually glad I talked you into doing this surgery, aren't you? It's so poetic! Drake's successful surgery makes up for what happened twenty years ago— _hey_!"

And that was how Mar ended up being shooed out of the operating room by the annoyed Disinfector.

* * *

"You'd better appreciate this, Drake," the Disinfector said to his unconscious patient. With Mar out of the room and Suesse goodness knew where The Disinfector was alone.

There was a knock on the door. Mrs Suesse entered, her eyes shining.

"Mar told me the great news. I am so grateful to you for saving Red, Dr Disinfector."

The Disinfector, with his back to her, did not respond.

" Dr Disinfector? "

**"Do not want your thanks for saving Drake,"** he said curtly.

Mrs Suesse was taken aback. "I don't understand. Have I done something to offend you?"

Without saying anything, The Disinfector lifted his hand to undo his collar seal. There was a hiss as he pulled off his helmet and visor so that his head was bare. Slowly, he turned around so he was face-to-face with Mrs Suesse. The look in his eyes was chilling.

**"Yes, you have...** _Madelyn_."

**[Chapter break here]**

* * *

**_Phalanx's notes__:_**

_In the end, I made the decision not use this version of the build-up to the finale because it resulted in a lot of other loose ends. The presence of Drake, Gurnarde and Walker on board the _Not Sunny _ would have complicated the final confrontation with Madelyn. It also didn't have the desperation of the original ending, which ultimately would be needed for Mar, Blake and Garreth to go ahead with the wish that would cost Mar her existence. _

_One thing I liked a lot about this alternate version (besides the far lower body count) is that Law actually got a resolution and redemption for his failed operation on Chopper. I also enjoyed touching on Drake's precarious mental state, his interactions with Mar's crew and especially his meeting withThe Disinfector. I was genuinely sorry to have to omit those because they played off each other so well. One good thing did come out of the change though, I got to put in the Gurnarde/Mer-King storyline , which I would have had to miss out on otherwise._

_Oh and you guys have LaraLuvKakashi to thank for getting me to rework and include this particular cut content here. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have remembered to include it if they hadn't specifically asked me to :) -|P_

* * *

**Awesome Art Stuff**

* * *

_I was lucky enough to get the following fanarts for this fanfic from my wonderful readers (links available from my profile page)_

**SPOILER ALERT! Marie D Suesse Fanart by ~LittleMissUnknown**

_**-|P:** I love the daintiness of this sketch. It also invokes a bit of sadness. I always think the superimposing of Mar represents the part of Law that cannot remember where the name comes from._

**The New Crew Member by ~Colors-of-Iris**

_**-|P:** This little comic is adorable. If Chibi!Law isn't enough to make you go aw, the portrayal of the kitten scene will be!_

**I swear it, Mar! by ~sasuhina0324**

_**-|P:** Law's promise to Mar is one of the most iconic moments in this fic for me. It's in fact, supposed to be the reason the story exists at all. So naturally I loved that that moment was picked!_

* * *

**Appendix: Notable Character Index and name explanations.**

* * *

**Marie Denise Suesse ****-** Marie Suesse obviously stands for 'Mary Sue', and the 'D.' was intially there to make fun of the tendency of OP fanfic original characters to have a random truncated letter in their names. Mar was supposed to be a lot more annoying and self-centered, but by the time I got to the third chapter where I was supposed to enjoy having the Sunny torment her, I decided a shallow parody wasn't working out and decided to go the horror route instead.

**Garreth Stuart Suesse ****-** Obviously 'Gary Stu', though I never meant for Mr. Suesse to become such a major character at first. It was a snap decision I made on Chapter Nine to bring him in as a supporting character earlier instead of having him rescued at St. Magnus' much later. One of the best decisions I've ever made story-wise, I think.

**St. Magda Monkey D. Madelyn Blakeney Hosseau-Suesse**** -** The sheer number of names Madelyn has is a reference to the long train of names Mary Sues are supposed to have, if you believe the stuff you read in Mary Sue Litmus Tests. It's quite discredited nowadays, and I cannot recall a single instance of a real Mary Sue that was not a trollfic/parody actually having super-long names like that. Incidentally, both Mar and Madelyn were created in defiance of Mary Sue Litmus tests (which I consider misleading to new writers). I deliberately looked them up, ticked as many boxes as I could, and set out to write characters with those Suish traits but (hopefully) weren't Sues. Incidentally, Mar's Mary Sue litmus test score is 107, and this is with the de-Suefier section (which subtracts points) mostly ticked. Madelyn scored 172. For reference, anything over 50 is considered a lost cause by the test.

**The Disinfector **- Alternative names for him were "The Mad Doctor" or "Dr. T". Some of you might be surprised to know that very very very early on in the story conception, before I'd even written a word, there had been a very real possibility of him being jaded, mentally-scarred Tony-Tony Chopper after all. However, the plot points made better sense with Law, and so here we are.

**'Demon' Walker ****-** Walker is named after one of the common names for the spiny devilfish, a kind of bottom-dwelling scorpionfish. They go by many names, but the ones my diving buddies use are 'demon/devil walkers' or 'walkman'.

**'Sand-Dragon' Gurnarde ****-** 'Gurnarde' is obviously a feminine version of the fish species 'gurnard'. 'Sand-Dragon' refers to the flying gurnard's appearance, and also its tendencies to hang around sandy ocean beds. I remember the first time I saw one underwater and thought: "What the hell is that crazy-looking fish?", followed by "If I ever do a mermaid character I'm basing it on that weird fish."

An interesting titbit about Gurnarde is that she and Walker are actually supposed to be Hyozou the merman swordsman's estranged offspring. This is alluded to but never directly stated in the story though that didn't stop several of you readers from putting two and two together and figuring it out (_Hi there ColoursOfIris and Mikan!)_. I didn't want to make it a major point in the story itself because I wanted Gurnarde and Walker to be appreciated for themselves and not just because they were related to a Canon character.

**Slashfang**** -** I remember reading a fic where a character had a Tori-Tori no mi, Model: Bat. That really annoyed me.

**Sakura D. Hana** - Two very overused Japanese names. Cherry-Blossom D. Flower is as about as cheesy as it gets.

**Wyvernpants D. Draco** - Draco in Leather Pants meets Dragon powers (a wyvern is a kind of dragon)

**Captain Marrow** - The bone-DF marine from Sabaody. Bone. Marrow. Kinda obvious.

**Roronoa D. Squall** - A squall is a sudden but violent storm. It also doesn't last long. Is he Zoro's long-lost brother, or was he just a wannabe? Goodness knows. He didn't last long enough to matter.

**Admiral Lance D. Imba** - 'Imba' is a gaming term for 'imbalanced', which I thought just about describes most imaginings of the 'Copy-Copy' fruit. Unless you put some realistic limitations to the way the fruit works, it's overpowered and you will need some really good plotting to make up for it.

**Fleet Admiral Stamper** - The fleet admiral who stamps 'DECEASED' on the posters, and then talks to Mar about 'old times' when she gets captured. I never meant him to be a named or repeat character at first, but he ended up being something of a one-scene wonder so I decided to give him more than one scene.

**Vice-Admiral Catti** - The female marine officer who taunts Red and Mar about the puppet controllers. She's rather catty.

**Koohtou (The Long-Arm Shipwright)** - I never managed to give his name in the story until the very end, since I never found it important enough to do so. He was supposed to be less evil and so impressed by Mr. Suesse's business acumen that he joined the crew. But since I was going to sink the Sunny so soon anyway I didn't see the point of having another crewmate who was a shipwright and so he became a plot point instead. It's a bad idea to expand your cast meaninglessly. Avoiding picking them up saves you having to kill them off later. Not that I didn't do it anyway.

**St. Augustus Magnus** - 'Magnus' was picked because it sounded like 'Magda'. 'Augustus' was picked because it rhymed. Yeah I know, so much for profound hidden meanings...

**Red** - He was originally supposed to be called 'Muzzle' or 'X-10', but I felt the latter was too obvious. He is still referred to as X-10 by Vegapunk's lab guys though.

**Cree** - St. Magda's old bodyguard. Was supposed to have a bigger role and his execution would have been the reason Magda ran away to be a pirate, but timelines did not match and I felt it would have derailed the story.

**Tikki** - The kid boxfish mermaid owned by St. Magda. Considered making her a kidnapped childhood friend of the mer-siblings to partially explain Gurnarde's hatred for humans, but felt that it was too much and cheesy.

**Dr. Kusanagi** - (the scientist who headed the puppet controller division. Named after Motoko Kusanagi of the Ghost in the Shell fame. Think the Puppeteer *cough*

* * *

**SBS Final Version!**

* * *

_I was rather shocked and humbled at the overwhelming response to the ending. Even six months after the story ended, Marie D Suesse And The Mystery New Pirate Age! continues to pull in steady numbers of new readers, most of them with strong reactions to the story. I guess my little self-challenge's all grown up now :D_

_Because I don't want to bore you all, I'm only picking out the questions that contain information others might find interesting. I've tried to respond to all my signed reviews, and if you've haven't heard from me yet, it wasn't intentional or it could be me procrastinating. Oops! Shoot me a PM, I won't bite! -|P_

* * *

**colordrifter 12/19/12 . chapter 33**

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the narrator may be some part of Law's subconsciousness that gives him the feeling that he's forgetting something. The narrator's certainly sarcastic enough.

**Dizzyy 4/22/13 . chapter 33**

p.s. is Law the narrator?

**Colors of Iris 1/1/13 . chapter 33**

Also x2: Narrator as Law was a pleasant surprise. It would certainly explain the occasional acerbic tone. ;)

**Amy-chan123** 12/20/12 . chapter 33

If the narrator ends up being Law, I am goning to shed a manly tear.

**Manic Dogma 12/22/12 . chapter 33**

The narrator sounds a lot like he's law, but you explicitly stated in this chapter that he doesn't remember Mar or any of it? and before that he called the strawhats and sounded deliriously happy to hear from them, as though he actually remembered? He could have been just feeling the aftereffects of reality reasserting itself i suppose, but along with the narrator implication that's a bit hard to swallow. Inconsistency really gets on my nerves.

**Mikan 12/20/12 . chapter 33**

Also, Law kept his promise! Even though he can't quite recall the whole story, which is probably better for his sanity. Still, I can't quite stop laughing at the image of him drunk-calling Luffy and just listening (inexplicably happy) at his randomness and demanding that they're all right.

...

I take it he's the narrator then? No wonder he was so sour all the time. XD

_**-|P:** Yep, you guys figured it out perfectly :). The Narrator is indeed Trafalgar Law. Or I guess it would be more accurate to say it was the Bitter!Deranged!Disinfector version of Law, specifically, the ghost of Alternate Reality!Disinfector!Law that was still bound to existence until he fulfilled his promise to Mar._

_It's a... er, complicated._

* * *

**Colors of Iris 1/1/13 . chapter 33**

(Hmm...on a different note, Gurnarde's dad was Hyouzou, wasn't it?)

**Mikan 12/20/12 . chapter 33**

SO THAT IS WHY GURNARDE SO EASILY FORGAVE MAR FOR "HIDING" THE IDENTITY OF HER MOM. She WOULD know what it's like to be blamed for the misdeeds for your parents.

_**-|P:** Well done. I did leave a few clues, particularly Gurnarde's drunken rant and then the illusion to Hordy's crew in the last chapter, but I wondered if anyone would really pick up on them. As it turns out, I'm a lucky author and your guys are probably the most eagled-eyed of readers anyone could hope for ;)_

_Also, now you know where Gurnarde picked up her affinity to alcohol from._

* * *

**LaraLuvKakashi 12/19/12 . chapter 33**

HP is my other favourite. Waiting for that version of yours too when the Suesse would play roles in the upcoming parody (hope the Disinfector, Walker, Gurnarde, etc would make an appearance too! :D)

**-P: **_I'll try and fit in a cameo into "The Supernova Eleven" if they ever get around to Fishman Island ;)_

_I did write a bit of the HP sequel, but for now it's put on hold until I can think of a worthy plot, and I've still got two other fanfics to finish in the meantime!_

* * *

**colordrifter12/19/12 . chapter 33**

I imagine that Law will become quite attached to that kitty. Perhaps one day she'll eat a Human Model Devil Fruit and become a real neko-person, with ears and tails and everything. Yay for more Sue-cliches!

_**-|P:** And now you know who imspired the kitty!Mar bonus scene._

* * *

**Theralion 12/20/12 . chapter 33**

Your thoughts on the Mary Sues are, as always, insightful. I've noticed that preferential treatment of Mary Sues also applies to morality; I can see a Mary Sue author presenting the actions of someone like Madelyn as entirely justified (as they have for worse deeds). Being expected to see them as heroes or even decent people in light of such actions can be as unrealistic as them getting whatever they want.

**HeroR 1/22/13 . chapter 33**

You feel for everyone, even the God-Mode Madelyn who started out as almost a complete monster and turned into a character that you felt for despite all the terrible things she did. This is a story that all authors dream of writing, so bravo.

...

I also agree with you on you new found understanding of Mary Sue.

_**-|P:** I think one of the greatest things I took away from writing this fic was that newfound understanding of Mary Sue. It's so easy to write off Sues and demonize, but understanding the mechanics behind them is more important than memorising a list of traits will ever be._

* * *

**Loteva 1/29/13 . chapter 33**

What blows my mind is that you revealed the main plot points in Mar's nightmare, while at the time it looked like a comedic relief by using the reference to Star Wars.

...

Also, that's a first time that I see a 'girl falls into anime world' fanfic without any romance for the girl. This is a very rare find.

_**-|P:** You know, the cliche-ness of the Star Wars reference had to be the only reason I managed to get away with it. I'm pretty sure it would have been impossible otherwise._

_*chuckle* I love being contrary. If you stop to think about it, this is actually an "anime girl falls into real world and falls in love" fanfic, told from the perspective of the daughter 20 years later._

* * *

**skipbeataddict 6/5/13 . chapter 33**

I have to admit, when I started reading this I was doubtful. A narrator? What for? I have to admit, there was this one instance when you mentioned the whole "savy readers will know by now," blah blah and I was pretty offended because it seemed like you were underestimating your reader's intelligence. I mean OF COURSE it's Marie dressed as a noble, we didn't need a few more paragraphs to confirm that! But I also realized that readers are smarter than what most writers think (myself included). That's why it's so difficult to make a "solid" fanfic with a unpredictable plot and twists.

_**-|P:** Oh dear. That offending paragraph wasn't my intention at all. It was more of a "yeah I know this is obvious and I can't fool you clever readers, so I'm going to go ahead and lampshade it" maneuver. _

_:D My personal philosophy for writing mystery is that I always assume the readers are smarter than I am, but since I am the author, I have more information and the power to manipulate it. It's been a fun contest matching wits with the readership for sure._

* * *

**Rumu12/20/12 . chapter 33**

When will the bonus scenes be uploaded? Hope it won't take long!

_**-|P:** Errr... I guess 6 months counts as long, doesn't it? Erm... sorry?_

* * *

_And that's really it! I've gone back and did some revision of all 33 chapters, removed some poor or unnecessary parts and added new dialogue and other bits. If you've been contemplating a reread of the whole series, it's a good time to do it. Either way, t__hanks for following!_

_The working title for the Harry Potter sequel to this story is "Marty Suesse-Potter and The Twin Who Lived", but to be honest, I can't promise anything anytime soon. If I ever get beyond that first chapter though, I'll probably update this story with a teaser to let you know where to find it. Cheers, and I do hope you'll follow my other stories as well. *hugs* -|P_


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